Jamie wakes up in Kassi's house after a night on the town to find police hammering at the door as Kassi is accused of money-laundering and fraud and his assets confiscated. Jamie is shocked when Kassi tells him of his plan to escape to France but,when this falls,he moves Kassi,his wife and children onto the Chatsworth estate,where they are generally made welcome. Mimi,however,recalling Kassi's father,is extremely hostile. With their mortgage application refused,Kelly and Marty,now outcasts for robbing Lilian, do exit the estate whilst Shane 's bizarre affair with policewoman Randall continues.

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.

Aidan is looking after Stan,an elderly,ailing man who does not want to go on with life and kills himself. Fearing that he will be incriminated Aidan enlists the help of Billy,who is useless,and Dominic,who has practical ideas for a cover-up,but they are interrupted by Stan's daughter Angela who is aware of her father's suicidal longings and tells Aidan she knows he is innocent. When Aidan seems unusually flush and is seen driving Stan's car Dominic wonders if he is so innocent after all and informs the police who arrest Aidan. A talk with Angela convinces Dominic that he has been wrong and he owns up to the assisted suicide and is himself charged. Aidan bails him and he flees the estate as the truth of Stan's demise is eventually shown. The Blancos are now living in Avril's old house and Esther's children are concerned about her friendship with Frank. She claims that he is merely being helpful as a neighbour but is taken aback to find him in her bed in the nude.

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.

Patreesha's boyfriend Louis tells her he has arranged a singing tour of America for her but drops dead of a drug over-dose,leaving a case containing fifty thousand pounds. Patreesha and Avril attempt to cheat each other out of the money,Avril staging a false kidnap attempt involving Shane, but eventually they unite when they learn that Louis was actually a con artist who had cheated several women out of money with false promises of an American tour. Tam Blanco's obsession with stealing knickers from washing-lines meanwhile leads to Frank being wrongly accused of being a pervert.

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.