The series starts twenty years earlier when a group of Chilean friends travel for fun to
Los Angeles, United States. One night in the hotel a gunshot is heard, and Marcia Jones (Jael Unger), the first to hear it, runs to the room where she heard the shot to find her friend Patricia dead on the floor. Marcia picks up the gun by accident, therefore becoming the sole murder suspect. Months later she is found guilty and sentenced to 20 years in prison in the United States. During the trial it is discovered that at the time of her death, Patricia was pregnant. Every friend Marcia thought she had shuns her, including her husband Esteban San Lucas (Walter Kliche), who leaves her in the United States and forces her to sign a marriage annulment. The story moves on to present day (1981), Marcia has now become a bitter woman who only maintains contact with her attorney, who has always believed in her innocence and tries to help her. Father Belisario (Tennyson Ferrada), a priest in
Pomaire also remains in touch with Marcia and regularly sends her Chilean food and clay which Marcia uses to make highly-appraised figurines which had allowed her to generate a small fortune by herself. One day Marcia is released from prison and decides to return to Chile. At this point, Esteban is about to marry Ana Rosa (Ana María Palma), to the dismay of Héctor (Ramón Farías), Luna (Claudia Di Girólamo), and Ricardo (Alberto Vega), Esteban's children with Marcia. Especially since the wedding day coincides with another anniversary of the "mother's death"—Esteban had told this lie to his kids so he wouldn't have to tell them she was a murderer. Days later, the group of friends receives an invitation to a hotel where they find out that they have been summoned by Marcia herself, who has returned to reclaim her children and finally discover Patricia's real murderer. She begins by making Esteban cease his relationship with Ana Rosa, and goes on to remarry him herself, therefore becoming "La Madrastra" ("The Stepmother") of her own children who reject her completely and make her life impossible at first. But as time goes on, Marcia slowly regains their trust. At the same time, she slowly uncovers the truth: Patricia's murderer was Estrella (Gloria Münchmeyer), who killed Patricia because she was expecting a baby that could have possibly come from her affair with Estrella's husband Donato (Jaime Vadell) who might have left Estrella to be with Patricia and their baby. == Cast ==