Winds of the South is a novel set in pre-civil war Georgia. It is the story of Zimri Rhodes, a transplanted Connecticut Yankee who starts a newspaper in a frontier settlement and marries a young Southern girl who is the daughter of a wealthy planter. She brings as part of her dowry four slaves, who Zimri, for financial reasons, sells at auction, and though he stipulates that the family is not to be broken up, a trader re-sells them separately afterwards. Zimri is remorseful, but knows not what to do, thinking that he will never see these slaves again. He tries to forget about it as he returns to his home in Connecticut to visit family and friends. While there, he meets a most extraordinary woman, an actress from New York who is also involved in the abolitionist movement, though to what extent remains a mystery. Shortly after he returns to Georgia, his young wife delivers their second and third children, fraternal twins. Everything seems to have returned to normal, his newspaper is flourishing, and the future seems bright. But one day the actress appears, makes a proposal that transforms both the town and her relationship with Zimri, and nothing is ever again the same.