María Dolores is a beautiful young woman with few resources and noble feelings, but she is also a woman of struggle and with the strength to get ahead in the face of adversity. She has a great talent for making haute couture dresses that she inherited from her mother, Esperanza de ella. When her father is tragically murdered in an assault, she meets Maximiliano Bustamante, an attractive and honest lawyer who offers to help her. Although there is a strong attraction between them, both have sentimental commitments. He is about to marry Maleny Santibáñez, a spoiled and capricious society girl who doesn't really love him; she is only interested in her money and is also cheating on him with Ari, her tennis teacher.