Rosa Garcia , a naive tomboy lives with her Gobmother Manina in an impoverished neighborhood of Mexico City. Ricardo Linares is a rich bachelor who is often pestered by his (single) sisters Cándida and Dulcina Linares, (played by Liliana Abud and Laura Zapata) about getting married so then he decides to marry the first girl he encounters in order to provoke his sisters. One day Rosa goes out to hang out with the other kids from the neighborhood, when she decides to take some plums from a large plum tree which happens to grow in the garden of a gigantic mansion. It is here that she has her first encounter with Ricardo Linares (Guillermo). Ricardo's sisters want to call the police, but Ricardo feels sorry for the poor girl and shows mercy by deciding not to report her to the police and allows her to keep the plums instead. Soon they fall in love with each other and Ricardo asks for her hand in marriage. Ricardo's sisters, who had expected Ricardo to marry socialite Leonela Villarreal from this point on, decide to do whatever they can to break up the relationship and marriage, by plotting one intrigue after another.

As the telenovela progresses, the intrigues of Dulcina bonding with Leonela and the scheming housekeeper Leopoldina worsen. Ricardo's other sister, Cándida slowly stops pestering Rosa, after a while, herself becoming the next victim of her sister Dulcina, who starts an affair with Cándida's luscivious lover and later on sees her sister as a threat to her fortune. At one point, Dulcina, in a jealous rage, throws the pregnant Cándida off the stairs in order for her to miscarry. Still obsessed with getting rid of her sister, Dulcina tries to have Cándida admitted into a psychiatric home, with the help of Leopoldina, who mixes poison in her fruit juice. As Ricardo had demonstrated wanting to marry Rosa instead of Leonela, Dulcina needed to ensure her position in the house, she didn't want a poor girl from the slums inheriting all of the Linares family's wealth. And with no chance of Ricardo changing his mind, Leonela just goes along with Dulcina in their final effort to evict Rosa from the house. They succeeded by revealing to Rosa that Ricardo married her only to bother his family. Understandably Rosa's heart is broken and she left.

Soon after, a major twist is revealed. Rosa found out she is the daughter of an extremely wealthy woman who was forced to give her up many years ago. Re-united with her mother, Rosa became extremely wealthy. Towards the end, it is also revealed that Rosa is expecting Ricardo's child. After finding out the horrible news, Dulcina receives another shock: the Linares family is bankrupt and Rosa wants to purchase their estate. Dulcina is unaware that Rosa is simply buying the Linares Mansion in order to give it back to Ricardo and his family, because she had never stopped loving him.

Outraged, Dulcina send out Leonela to run Rosa over on her way to the hospital for a routine check up. As Leonela drives off from the crime scene after hitting Rosa, she is completely blinded by hate and due to her carelessness ends up with her car stuck on train tracks. A train is quickly approaching and Leonela is unable to get out of her car. Finally, she gets hit by the train and dies on the scene after her car explodes. Meanwhile, back at the house, Dulcina loses her mind completely after hearing about Leonela's demise. She decides to set the house on fire rather than have Rosa get it. She pours gasoline all over the hallway, stairs, kitchen, but then the housekeeper Leopoldina, finally realizing what the crazed woman has in store for them, tells her that she doesn't want to die, but Dulcina doen't care. In a final effort to get out, Leopoldina ran to the kitchen and got a bottle of acid kept under the kitchen sink. She throws it in Dulcina's face and while blinded shot Leopoldina to death. The police knock down the door and take her away. Dulcina is sentenced into an asylum for the criminally insane. Cándida visits her sister in order to forgive her, but the psychotic Dulcina, her face horribly disfigured by the lighter fluid, screams at the terrified Cándida to get out of her cell.

After the whole ordeal, the pregnant Rosa and Ricardo are joined in marriage and they've got his twin brother Rogélio, who had expressed feelings towards Rosa at the beginning but is now married to Rosa's best friend, and sister Cándida standing by their side.