In the 1970s, Dalila is suffering from oppression and injustice by her aristocratic mother because Dalila is determined to be a famous singer. Along the way she experiences two love stories that will show her who is on her side on the path to glory and fame. insists to be a famous singer.
Dalila is the musically-gifted daughter of a well-to-do farmer and his aristocratic wife, living in the Egyptian Delta region. Her parents' relationship has gone cold after her mother Hoda discovered her husband loved someone else, and she takes out her distress on Dalila and her brother Mahmoud, who rebel against her high-class rules, while pampering her eldest son Sayed.
After Dalila flouts her mother's rules yet again by entering (and winning) a music competition, she's sent to a strict boarding school, where she becomes close friends with two other girls who also have problematic relationships with their mothers. She and Mahmoud make the mistake of trusting Dalila's friend's father, Yehua, a widower, playboy, and lawyer in Alexandria, who at first helps Dalila with her musical dreams. Really this is his excuse to get close to her. When her mother refuses to let her marry him, they elope.
Meanwhile Sayed, when not getting drunk and gambling, has been courting Yehua's daughter who lives in their village. Without adult supervision, one thing leads to another and the girl finds herself pregnant. Sayed refuses to marry her now that her father has humiliated their family, so she tries to hide the pregnancy. When she loses her baby, revealing her seduction by Sayed, Yehua has him beaten and exiled from the village. Sayed moves to Alexandria and marries a dancer. Meanwhile Mahmoud, who is now engaged to one of Dalila's friends, notices some illegal activity happening at his work and is killed (also at the behest of Yehua).
Yehua proves to be a jealous, controlling and eventually violent husband. He dashes her hopes of a musical career and estranges her from her friends as much as possible.
Dalila finds herself pregnant, and is excited, but Yehua by now has moved them into a hotel in Cairo and effectively made her a prisoner. When he has a heart attack, she seizes her chance and runs away.
Years later Dalila is now a nightclub singer, supporting her mother - who has dementia - her father's second wife (now widowed), her daughter, and Sayed, who's now divorced and trying to raise his own son. She has fallen in love with her old musical supporter Marwan, and they marry. Many problems beset her as rival singers try to ruin her chances, Yehua returns and tries to force a remarriage and her relationship with Marwan grows tense, but she eventually finds fame. Sayed falls from grace by inadvertently working with Dalila's enemies due to his greed, but redeems himself. Her friends also have ups and downs in their relationships.
Eventually Dalila is on top of the world, but her health begins to falter. It's found that she has a tumor that can be successfully treated but only if she never sings again. She falls into a crippling depression, so Marwan makes the heartbreaking decision to lie to her about her prognosis, so that she can be happy again. The series ends with Dalila joyfully singing at a concert, all her loved ones in the audience with tears in their eyes, knowing that their time with her is going to be short.
