Maria and Luigi love each other in spite of their poverty, while she resists her many wealthy suitors. But their mutual enemies figure out a lie that will separate them. Maria will become temporarily rich but then she will commit a crime and will divert into the slums. There Luigi will meet her...
It all begins when Nirka takes the daughter she has had by Prince Rodolpho and hands her to a confederate. He in turn hands her over to a hag, who first torments her, and later abandons her to an orphanage.
