Young people living on the edge and, for the most part, living out of sight in East London today based around inner-city drug and gang culture.

After Heather has shown him the flat she hopes to buy with her drugs money Ra'Nell welcomes his mother home. Sully visits his daughter but Chris bars Dushane from his house as a liability. Sully suggests to Dushane that an informant in their group is in league with The London Fields. He names Gem and sends a thug,Dris,to kill the boy's dog and send him into hiding before Ra'Nell gets the courageous Leon to call the gang off. Though Kamale does not turn up to Shaun's funeral a chance sighting leads Dushane and his gang to their rival where,after claiming another victim,they locate the missing drugs at a tyre depot,where Lee Greene just happens to be so they shoot him too but now a full-scale gang war erupts as Kamale's associates seek revenge.

Dushane is shocked that Sully still has the gun which killed three people but he refuses to go along with Raikes' plan to sell him out as a liability. Overhearing Vincent,Heather's Vietnamese buyer,refusing to give her the price she wants for her weed,Ra'Nell persuades Dushane to pay the required rate and shows him a sample of its quality. Heather goes to hospital and gives birth,admitting to Lisa how she involved Ra'Nell in her scheme. Lisa rings Leon,who tries to prevent Sully from stealing the marijuana from Ra'Nell but in the fight that follows Sully shoots and kills Leon.Dushane visits Raikes on the pretext of giving Sully up but shoots him and makes it look like suicide. He gives Ra'Nell the money for the weed,which he passes on to Heather and,as Ra'Nell,Gem and Gem's girlfriend Chantelle go into business with Vincent,Dushane,having got Raikes out of the way,is now the kingpin of the estate's drug-peddling industry, the Top Boy.

A year has passed and Dushane is still the Top Boy, engaging in large scale drug smuggling with the older Scotsman Joe and using street-wise kid Michael as a courier. However the police discover Kamale's body and arrest both Dris and Dushane. They are visited by lawyer Rhianna Parkes, who gets them released and whom Dushane takes out for a drink. Meanwhile Ra'Nell is approached for help by Gem, whose marijuana plants seem to be dying, putting him in debt to Vincent whilst Ra'Nell's mother, hair-dresser Lisa and Gem's father are perturbed that their rents are being troubled. Dushane's old partner Sully now turns against him with new cohort Mike, though Michael steals his phone whilst Joe is attacked in a shoot-out and left for dead, robbed of his ill-gotten gains.

Gem's father Mustapha tells him he is planning a move to Ramsgate where shop prices are cheaper but Gem feels compelled to stay and work out his debt to Vincent by drug running for him. Caught shop-lifting with drugs on him Michael tells the police they belong to Dushane. He also tells them that Kamale was killed in a house where Kayla Thomas once lived. Released with a caution he says none of this to Dushane. Dushane himself, now having sex with Rihanna, visits Joe in hospital and learns that the drugs were stolen by an Albanian gang. Sully and Mike are summoned by former hit-man Tony and offered twenty thousand pounds to kill Jermaine Newton. Since Jermaine is Sully's cousin he goes to warn him but demands twenty grand to spare him. Jermaine contacts his brother Rafe to sell his car to raise the money so Sully and Mike keep him hostage until the cash arrives.

Rihanna tries to persuade Dushane to go straight and introduces him to two property developers looking for investors. After visiting the dying Joe he considers the proposal but asks her to represent Kayla, charged with perverting the course of justice and assisting in Kamale's murder. Rafe launches an armed attack on Sully's flat to rescue Jordan, killing Mike. Sully asks Dushane to intervene to help him, the deal being that Sully joins him in recovering the drugs from the Albanians. Gem's latest drug delivery goes wrong when the recipient turns nasty and steals the goods. Ra'Nell goes to beat Vincent up but is badly assaulted by the Chinese man. Lisa wants to call the police but Ra'Nell stops her.

Rihanna is appalled when Dushane asks her to tell Kayla to keep quiet about his involvement in Kamale's death or else he will kidnap her son. She manages to get Kayla free and takes the heat off Dushane but ends their relationship in disgust at his ruthlessness. Lisa seeks Dushane's help in sorting out Vincent and Dushane goes to see him. However, before he can do anything Mustapha, who has learned the truth from Gem, stabs Vincent in the leg. The next day he and Gem move to Ramsgate whilst Lisa also prepares to move on with Ra'Nell. Dushane and Sully and their gang invade the Albanians' lair and recover their drugs but the Albanians give chase, killing Michael when he tries to warn Dushane and forcing Dushane to go on the run.