The cockpit of a Boeing 747 is struck by lightning during takeoff for a flight to Europe, fatally injuring the flight crew. Laurie, the senior flight attendant, enlists the aid of passenger Brett Young. They determine that the autopilot can bring the plane in for a landing, but soon learn that the autopilot is locking onto the transponders of airfields at random, including signals from small airports with runways too short to accommodate the jumbo jet. Meanwhile, federal officials on the ground who have lost radio contact with the jet debate whether the plane should be shot down to prevent a more disastrous crash in a heavily populated area.

Margaret Mitchell, portrayed as rebellious and spirited as Scarlett O'Hara, grows up in a comfortably middle-class Atlanta home, absorbing her grandmother's stories of the Civil War and the burning of their city by the Yankees. Young Peggy, as she likes to be called, goes to Smith College in Massachusetts and hates it. Back in Atlanta, her mildly scandalous reputation is made more so by her first marriage, to Red Upshaw, a bootlegging rake. Later, her second husband encourages her to expand her writing talents beyond feature articles for The Atlanta Journal. Her first and only novel becomes one of the best-selling books of all time.