On Monday, October 20, 2003, Canal de las Estrellas started broadcasting Mariana de la noche weekdays at 9:00pm, replacing Amor real. The last episode was broadcast on Friday, April 23, 2004 with Mujer de madera replacing it on Monday, April 26, 2004.
In this small mining town, rumor has it that Mariana Montenegro (Alejandra Barros) is under a curse, since all the men who fall in love with her sooner or later suffer a fatal accident. Mariana is a romantic and dreamy young woman who lives with her father, Atilio (César Évora), and is a maternal orphan. Atilio is the owner of the mine; a powerful man with a strong character who becomes cruel when someone opposes his will and who keeps a secret that eats away at his soul: Mariana is not his daughter and what he feels for her is far from being paternal affection.
Atilio has two sisters; Isabel (Alma Muriel), the eldest, is a good and affectionate woman who has raised Mariana and loves her as if she were her own daughter. Marcia (Angélica Rivera), the youngest, is arrogant and vain, harsh with the miners and with a cold heart that has never known love, until in town appears Ignacio Lugo (Jorge Salinas), a young and attractive journalist who has arrived at the place under a false name, in search of his roots.
Upon meeting Mariana, Ignacio knows that he will never be able to love another woman and Mariana also gives herself to him in body and soul. But Marcia falls passionately in love with Ignacio and is consumed by jealousy when she discovers that he and Mariana have secretly married. Furious and spiteful, Marcia informs her brother of the marriage and Atilio is determined to have Ignacio killed, without knowing that the man he is sentencing to death is his own son, the product of an affair with Lucrecia (María Rojo), the owner of the town’s restaurant.
However, fate saves Ignacio's life when an accident occurs in the mine and Atilio is seriously injured. Mariana finds out that Atilio is not her father and is horrified to learn that he is in love with her. Desperate and believing that she is actually cursed, Mariana flees the town carrying Ignacio's child in her womb. Marcia takes advantage of the situation to marry a man she does not love and become pregnant, but after a miscarriage, she manages to seduce Ignacio and steal Mariana's son, whom she passes off as her own to force Ignacio to marry her.
Mariana's story is a heartbreaking and exciting tale; a complex and surprising plot of intrigues and dark secrets that dominate the life of a small mining town full of unforgettable characters, superstitions, rumors and legends. Like the legend of the beautiful woman who always dresses in black because a terrible curse hangs over her.
