Mandy becomes pregnant. However, as she is continually pretending to be Ian's girlfriend to hide the fact that he's gay, the Maguires threaten him with castration if he doesn't marry their girl.

When Avril loses her job Patreesha insists she work at the car wash Patreesha owns with ex-husband Bernard. However Avril discovers that Bernard was gay and that his lover has been running the business. Determined not to be a sleeping partner Patreesha decides to take an active role and put her stamp on the car-wash. After a disaster with the freezer Chesney decides to refurbish the shop,adding a pharmacy,and brings in British Muslim Remona to run it. Soon he and Patreesha's daughter Mary Mae find evidence to suggest that Remona is making bombs and suspect she is a terrorist - though it turns it she is teaching boy scouts how to make soap. Kassi is arrested after a night out with Jamie and it is down to Jamie to look after his wife Esther and their children.

Mary Mae and Chesney are mutually smitten but fear Patreesha's disapproval. After Avril starts work at the shop - and identifies some rather odd manufacturing by Remona - Letitia and Aidan read that an adrenalin rush will bring a man's passionate nature to the fore and stage a robbery whilst Mary Mae is in the shop. It works but for the wrong reasons when Mary Mae discovers that the thieves have genuinely spent the spoils and confesses everything to Chesney. Shane's music festival is all set to go until Lilian catches him having sex with WPC Randall and tells Mimi.Mimi is convinced her son is being used so the police can launch a drugs raid on the festival and orders him to end the affair. He refuses but the policewoman's love of kinky sex ends it anyway. Fearing antagonism from the family Shane considers calling off the event but Karen persuades him to go ahead with it and it is a success - as is his first attempt to have straightforward,non-kinky sex with his girl in blue.

Frank is dismayed to discover that Lip has been living nearby with his little daughter Katie but not bothered to visit though he has been in touch with Katie's maternal grandma,Mimi. He invites them to tea,which requires Esther's help in cleaning the filthy house and they meet Stella,Monica's youngest,whom he has been minding. Whilst Lip has fun with the other estate lads and Karen and Jamie welcome him at the Jockey Frank sulks. Worse is to come when Lip catches his father having sex with Derilee and Sherilee and,after getting drunk,decides he and Katie should leave. Thus,whilst all the Maguires are invited to Katie's confirmation Frank is absent.

Chesney is surprised when Remona's father Barry shows up as she had said that he was dead. He gives her a cheque for thirty grand from his house sale and endears himself to Jockey customers with his generosity and anecdotes but Remona is hostile. Learning that Mindy,Barry's new wife,has left him Chesney feels sorry for him but soon learns that Barry has lied about his relationship and joins Remona in helping Mindy escape her husband. Frank accompanies Esther to a Polish evening,hoping for free vodka,but her son Tam,in revenge for Frank stealing his stash of drugs,feeds everybody laxatives whilst WPC Randall becomes jealous of Esther's innocent chats with Shane. Billy gets a tattoo to impress Mimi but the result is a failure.

Hoping to gain respect on the estate Billy goes for a job selling security devices but after a conversation with the sympathetic waitress in the café next door ends up as a short order cook,maintaining the illusion to everybody but Aidan that he has the sales job. To get extra money he arranges for his house to be burgled to claim the insurance but is eventually found out though Mimi is pleased that he did it for her. Esther is shocked to find that Thalia is the school bully and goes around apologizing to everybody though it gets her into trouble from which her artful daughter extricates her with sympathy-gaining lies. Lilian meanwhile takes in Stella,as a result of which the brothel suffers an infestation of nits.

Gun-toting 'Biddy' Baxter arrives at Frank's house. He is Derilee's husband,anxious for her to return to him though she flatly refuses and soon the police are besieging the house with Frank,Stella and Derilee as Biddy's hostages after Biddy has accidentally shot a postman. News coverage brings Monica back to the estate. Courting press publicity she volunteers to be a hostage in Stella's place but,whilst she and Frank seem to get on,Derilee and Biddy's differences come to the fore. As the residents hold a party in the Jockey police storm the house but Biddy lies dead,shot by Derilee - in alleged self defence. She is not prosecuted and she and Sherilee leave the area.

Having served six months for benefit fraud Frank is discharged from jail to be welcomed by a heavily pregnant Monica,so pregnant that she gives birth in the Jockey. Soon she is suffering severe post-natal depression,upset that she had a termination that disposed of her surviving child's twin.With little help from Frank she summons Fiona,Lip and Carl for a show funeral for the dead child but Fiona,recognizing the inadequacy of her parents to raise more children,steals Stella and the baby and,helped by Lip,hides them with Kev Ball whilst she talks to Steve about housing them. Stella,babe in arms,wanders off,causing panic on the estate but she eventually tracks Frank down and cleverly forces him to publicly admit that he loves her. He takes the pair of them home,where there is a huge family row,which,in turn,leads to reconciliation and a celebration at the Jockey whilst another fight starts and the police are called - just like old times.