María Hernández, later De la Vega, is a 15-year-old scavenger who lives on the outskirts of the city. She loses her godmother, who before dying, begs the local priest not to leave María to fend for herself. The priest asks one of his benefactors to please let Maria work as a servant in his house. Instead, Don Fernando de la Vega brings her in as his ward, making her a target of hostility for his wife, Victoria de la Vega, and her niece, Soraya Montenegro.
María falls in love with the dashing but drunken and disorderly son of the house, Luis Fernando de la Vega, and must fight Soraya for his affections. When Luis Fernando and María finally get married, he walks in on an innocent embrace between María and his brother Vladimir and storms out blinded with jealousy. He does not believe María's baby is his, so when it is born, Maria gives it away during a temporary bout of insanity. Luis Fernando rescues her from an asylum and adopts another child for her, but she never loses hope of recovering the son she lost. She was successful in recovering her lost son named "Fernandito" who grew up to be a respectable and good looking young man, thanks to Agripina Perez, to whom María gave her child. When Soraya comes back to get revenge on Maria for "luring" Luis Fernando away from her (in reality Soraya lured him to marry her originally under false pretenses before he married María), she ends up seducing Fernandito and for a time turns him against María.
