At the brink of the Civil War, a young mistress finds herself at Colonel Ashbee's sprawling South Carolina plantation. Affectionately called "Miss Jolly, " she soon falls prey to the lascivious whims of the Colonel's English mistress. For Miss Jolly, wartime becomes a life of forced labor, whippings, and demands for sexual favors - until she escapes to the North, and to an ironic surprise.