It was produced by Televisa and broadcast on Canal de las Estrellas in Mexico from Monday, February 7, 2005, through Friday, July 29, 2005.

[2] Starring Victoria Ruffo and César Évora, who last appeared together in 2000's Abrázame muy fuerte, along with Eduardo Capetillo, Jacqueline Andere, Ana Martín, Cecilia Gabriela, Martha Julia, Guillermo García Cantú, René Casados and Sabine Moussier, La madrastra tells the story of María, a woman who lost twenty years of her life after being falsely accused of murder and who returns to Mexico to extract revenge on her husband and friends who abandoned her and to see her beloved children once more.

A follow-up special, La madrastra: años después, aired shortly after the finale on Saturday, July 30, 2005.

María (Victoria Ruffo) hears a gunshot; she finds her friend, Patricia (Montserrat Olivier), dead and, in her confusion, she recklessly picks up the gun.

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.

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.

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.

The program aired weeknights at this time for one hour until Friday, July 15, 2005, when the telenovela was originally scheduled to end after a 115-episode run.