In the year 1850, María del Rosario (Laura Flores) falls in love with Juan de Dios San Román (Osvaldo Ríos), a humble fisherman, unaware that another man, Rodrigo Montes de Oca (Enrique Rocha) is in love with her. María del Rosario confesses her love for Juan de Dios to her sister, Leonarda (Helena Rojo), and tells her of their plans to wed, unaware that Leonarda harbors a deep hatred for her sister because she herself is secretly in love with Rodrigo. Leonarda tells Rodrigo about her sister's wedding plans, and he uses his influence with the authorities to stop the wedding and incarcerate Juan de Dios for life. While visiting him in prison, María del Rosario confesses to Juan de Dios that she is expecting their child. Rodrigo and Leonarda decide to confine María del Rosario to an estate by the sea. Juan de Dios escapes from jail and searches for María del Rosario, but Rodrigo discovers their plans to escape and tries to shoot him. María del Rosario begs Rodrigo for the life of Juan de Dios, interposing herself between the two, but before Rodrigo can kill him, Juan de Dios flees the estate as María del Rosario has begged. He swears he will return for her and their child.

María del Rosario gives birth to her son, whom Leonarda sends away to be raised in an orphanage while lying to her sister that the baby died. Upon hearing the news, María del Rosario spirals into insanity, so Leonarda decides to deceive Rodrigo and pass her sister off as dead while locking María del Rosario away in the estate’s basement dungeon. All the while, Leonarda is unaware that María del Rosario's little son has been rescued from the jungle by Remigio (Luis Gatica), who adopts the boy as his brother and takes the child to be raised by Aurora who baptizes him as Juan de Dios, as requested by a note left with the baby.

Leonarda expects to win Rodrigo after her sister's supposed death, but when Rodrigo responds by leaving Mexico, she decides to marry Noel Vidal (René Casados), Rodrigo's friend whom she does not love. After a few years, they have a son, Renato (Cristián de la Fuente). Meanwhile, Juan de Dios, Sr. dedicates himself to searching for his son; though he finds the boy, he does not dare approach him for fear of being rejected.

Soon, Rodrigo announces his return, and Leonarda believes that he is returning for her, but to her great surprise he arrives married to Constanza (Laisha Wilkins), who is pregnant. Leonarda poisons Constanza, who dies shortly after giving birth to twins Regina and Aimée(both portrayed by Aracely Arámbula). The years go by, and all of the children have grown. Juan de Dios, Sr., feeling death is close, decides to reclaim his son and takes the boy to live with him. Shortly before dying, Juan de Dios, Sr. sends a note with his son to Rodrigo asking him to care of the boy in honor of the love Rodrigo once swore for the boy's mother. Juan tries to deliver the note but Rodrigo is away. Juan returns to the cave to his dying father. Juan de Dios, Sr., before dying, asks his son to make an oath of vengeance against Rodrigo and the Montes de Oca for the pain and suffering inflicted on him and his true love, María del Rosario. Upon burying his father by the sea, the boy, in his rage and anger against those who betrayed and killed his father and mother, screams to the wind that from now on he will be known as Juan del Diablo. Meanwhile, Noel has received and read the note from Juan’s father and upon learning of the approaching death of Juan de Dios, Sr. and the true maternity of Juan de Dios, Jr., decides the boy should live with the Montes de Oca and take his proper place in their family. Renato identifies with Juan del Diablo, but Leonarda fiercely opposes the idea that her sister's bastard son should live with them and forces him to flee the estate. Juan del Diablo meets Santiago Aldama (Archie Lanfranco), who adopts him and takes him to Europe, where he receives a good education and inherits Santiago’s fortune along with the majority shares in a company that Santiago had with Rodrigo, Noel, and another.

Time passes, and in 1880 the now adult Juan decides to return to Mexico to fulfill the oath, only now he has the surnames of his adoptive parents. Juan meets Aimée, who is impressed with him, and a torrid relationship full of eroticism and sensuality is born between the two, even though Juan portrays himself to Aimée as a humble poor man. Regina, Aimée's twin sister, disapproves of the relationship. Regina wants to marry Renato because she has been in love with him since she was a little girl, but Renato is in love with Aimée, so Regina enters a convent and becomes a nun. Juan discovers eventually that Aimée is the daughter of his worst enemy and angrily rejects her. He then leaves so that he will not hurt her or her sister whom he considers innocent of their father’s treachery. Aimée, rejected by Juan, marries Renato as she cannot live without the luxuries he offers.

Juan decides he cannot live without Aimée and the passion he feels for her and decides to return for her. Upon his return, he learns of her marriage to Renato and decides to have revenge, but his passion for Aimée again defeats him, and an illicit relationship is established between the two. They decide to escape together; but when Renato discovers that Aimée may be cheating on him with Juan, Regina intervenes to save her sister by pretending to be the woman that Juan was secretly seeing. Renato thus obligates Juan to marry Regina.

Juan takes Regina on a trip, and she discovers that he is an admirable person full of virtue. Juan and Regina fall profoundly in love, and he completely forgets the passion that he felt for Aimée and finds true love with Regina. While Juan and Regina continue their amorous trip, Renato discovers Aimée's betrayal and, believing that Regina is in danger at Juan's side, dedicates himself to searching for them and making Juan pay for having slept with his wife.

Aimée searches for a way to win Juan back but he tells her that he feels nothing for her now, because he has discovered true love with Regina. Aimée tries to find a way to get rid of her sister and Renato so she can have Juan. She gets caught drugging Renato as he walks in, leading Aimée to scream at him telling him everything about her affair with Juan and that she only married him for his money. Renato tries to choke her but she escapes his grip, and runs into the woods during a torrential thunderstorm. Aimée runs to the witch who gave her the potion to drug Renato and asks her for help. The witch says all she can do for her is to give her a horse that a merchant traded her for help. Then she tells Aimée to run to the lowest part of the river stream and swim to the other side because that will distort the scent Renato's dogs have of Aimée and they will not be able to chase her. Aimée scurries and gets lost; she goes the wrong way and ends up high on a cliff above the beach. Renato, on horseback, with his dogs chasing Aimée, sees her on the cliff and tells her to stop. Aimée, intent on escaping, keeps going to the top of the cliff. The horse she is on gets scared and abruptly halts. The horse bolts, and Aimée falls off, rolling down the rocky cliff to the beach causing her death. Renato scared, and with some help of farm workers nearby, goes and retrieves her lifeless body, putting her on his horse, taking her to the mansion, and then places her on her bed. Jealous with rage, he then goes to confront Juan. Juan tells Renato it was Aimée who kept looking for him even though he tried to forget her and that was why he barged into their wedding to stop it because he could not believe she led him on and lied. Juan tells him to ask Aimée to see which one was lying, and Renato tells Juan it’s not possible because Aimée just died. Regina overhears and starts crying, telling Renato to take her to Aimée. That same night Rodrigo finds out that Renato was somewhat at fault for his daughter Aimée's death; he slaps Renato, then breaks down. Leonarda tells them that Aimée was never pregnant.

Days later after Aimée's funeral, Renato discovers (by reading her diary), that Regina loved him since childhood. Jealous, determined to get rid of Juan, and annul his marriage to Regina, Renato pledges to win back Regina's love. Noel, his father, tries to convince him to end his struggle against Juan and accept Juan and Regina's relationship; but Renato is unable to let go of his anger and jealousy and is convinced he can win Regina's love. He confronts Juan in a great battle in which Juan is victorious but disappears after falling into the sea.

Arcadio attacks Regina and Renato intervenes, saving Regina but is mortally stabbed by Arcadio who escapes. Juan re-encounters Regina while Renato is dying in her arms. On his deathbed, Renato asks Juan and Regina for their forgiveness as he tried to separate them and annul their marriage. Rodrigo locks Leonarda in the dungeons where she kept María del Rosario; there Leonarda dies from starvation. Arcadio also dies when Rodrigo kills him in the dungeons. Rodrigo is captured and jailed for all his past atrocities. Noel visits him in jail and Rodrigo tells Noel that in one month—no less—he should go visit the dungeons as a surprise is waiting for him. A month passes and Noel goes to the dungeons and is shocked to see the remains of Leonarda locked in there. Rodrigo later dies in jail from a heart attack.

Juan del Diablo San Román and a pregnant Regina Montes de Oca finally get married, as their first marriage was annulled by Renato, and set sail into the sunset on Juan's ship.