A terrible tragedy puts an end to a group of friends' pleasure trip. María (
Victoria Ruffo) hears a gunshot; she finds her friend, Patricia (
Montserrat Olivier), dead and, in her confusion, she recklessly picks up the gun. María is accused of the murder and sentenced to life in prison. Her husband, Esteban (
César Évora), an important businessman, does not believe in her innocence; he divorces her upon returning to Mexico, buys the silence of those who went with them on the trip and tells his children that their mother died in an accident. Twenty years later, María is released for good behavior and returns to Mexico seeking revenge. She is determined to discover the real culprit and confront Esteban, whom she now detests for having abandoned her to her fate. But what she wants most is to recover her two children, Héctor (
Mauricio Aspe) and Estrella (
Ana Layevska). The first thing María does upon arriving is to call together all those who participated in the fateful trip: Esteban; Servando (
Lorenzo de Rodas), one of his partners; Demetrio (
Guillermo García Cantú), the company's lawyer, and his wife, Daniela (
Cecilia Gabriela); Bruno (
René Casados), the company's other partner, and his wife, Fabiola (
Sabine Moussier), and Esteban's two aunts, Carmela (
Margarita Isabel) and Alba (
Jacqueline Andere). Everyone is surprised to see her enter and María sows doubt and fear in them by informing them that, for twenty years, Patricia's real killer has lived among them. María remarries Esteban to regain the affection of her children, but this will not be easy for her, since her children consider her a stepmother who has come to usurp the place of a dead mother whom they adore through the portrait of another woman and, in addition, she will have to deal with the intrigues of Esteban's aunts and partners; especially those of Fabiola, who has always been in love with Esteban and hates María. Moreover, María finds out that Esteban has a third son, Ángel (
Miguel Ángel Biaggio), and he refuses to reveal who his mother is. Ángel is a sickly and insecure young man and María immediately accepts him and treats him with affection. Little by little, María wins the love of her children without revealing the true bond that unites them. She helps Estrella to mature and stop being a superficial and fickle girl and to understand that of her two suitors, Carlos (
Sergio Mayer) and Greco (
José Luis Reséndez), the one who truly loves her is Greco, a good and humble young man; while Carlos is only interested in her money. Héctor is an arrogant young man to whom María teaches a great lesson when he meets Vivian (
Michelle Vieth), who was María's prison companion, and falls in love with her. And thanks to María's support, Ángel becomes an optimistic and self-confident person. However, María's biggest problem is Esteban. María finds herself at a cruel crossroads, because she has realized that she still loves her husband and he loves her. Now, her heart, hardened by twenty years of suffering, loneliness and abandonment, will have to find the strength to choose between the path of justice... and the path of forgiveness. ==Cast==