"Marimar" is the story of a beautiful young, but poor, girl who lives by the sea with her elderly grandparents. She falls in love with Sergio, the spoiled son of the wealthy Santibanez family. Sergio's parents are withholding half of his inheritance until he is married.He decides to use Marimar to placate and shame them. By choosing Marimar he will receive his entire inheritance and humiliate his parents by making "the dirty girl from the beach" their daughter-in-law. Because of the abuse Marimar receives at the hands of her in-laws she runs away to the city, hoping to escape the pain of her sham marriage. In the meantime, her birth father, an extremely wealthy man, is searching for his long lost daughter.