On April 12, 1861, news arrives at the Wilkes barbecue at Twelve Oaks plantation in Georgia: Confederate forces have opened fire on Fort Sumter. The young men erupt in celebration; the war they have been expecting and welcoming is finally here. Scarlett O'Hara, who has come to the party to confess her love to Ashley Wilkes, watches the scene from the sidelines. It is the last afternoon of the old order she has grown up in, though she does not know it yet.