The series is an adaptation of the Colombian telenovela Yo soy Betty, la fea, written by Fernando Gaitán and produced by RCN TV.

ViB was adapted into a Berlin setting by creators Michael Esser, Peter Schlesselmann and their co-team and co-producers Markus Brunnemann and Rainer Wemcken, whose production company Phoenix Film Karlheinz Brunnemann GmbH & Co. Produktions KG partnered with Grundy UFA TV Produktions GmbH to create the half-hour-long program for the German-speaking audience.

Elisabeth "Lisa" Plenske (Alexandra Neldel), a kind, intelligent, but naive and not necessarily beautiful young woman, grows up in the (fictional) village Göberitz, near Berlin, with her parents Bernd (Volker Herold) and Helga (Ulrike Mai).

During the course of the series, Lisa manages to save and finally own Kerima Moda, rescues her boss David from death and the wrath of his then-fiancée, watches him break off his engagement to Mariella, protects the company from David's maleficent rival and stepbrother and Mariella's brother Richard von Brahmberg (Karim Köster) and his mother Sophie von Brahmberg (Gabrielle Scharnitzky), endures the antics of the secretary Sabrina (Nina Gnädig), falls in love with and gets engaged to Robert "Rokko" Kowalski (Manuel Cortez), while bearing the quirks of the chief designer Hugo Haas (Hubertus Regout) and helping his assistant Hannah Refrath (Laura Osswald), David's sister Kim (Lara-Isabelle Rentinck) and the runner boy Timo (Matthias Dietrich) with their love lives.

While switching between a range of 24 different sets, the team generally filmed one episode (each 25 minutes) per day; in addition, outdoor shots in Berlin were booked twice a week.