Sharing a flat with would-be stand up comic Naomi, Effy is now the office junior at the hedge-fund department of Hewitt Maurice asset management fund. To avoid a friend getting into trouble, Effy stands in for her boss Victoria and takes it upon herself to deal with valued client Max Stibbard, who is impressed. As a result Jake, the head of the firm, gives Effy the chance to be a dealer and, helped by lovelorn Dominic from the research department, pulls off an impressively-lucrative deal. Effy is now mixing with high-flying financiers and Naomi is appalled at her friend's shallow behaviour, especially as Naomi admits to having cancer. But Effy is on a roll and embarks upon an affair with Jake. At the same time it is noticed that market returns are not matching the firm's returns.

Naomi tries to recover from cancer without Emily knowing. Effy is sleeping with her boss and tries to get Dom's help to pull Jake's company out of a slump.

Cassie is working in a seedy diner in London and regularly phoning her father Marcus, who is going senile. She lives in a noisy house where she keeps to herself but befriends another tenant, Maddie, a would-be actress who seems to have a lot of gentleman callers. She has meaningless sex with co-worker Yaniv but is shocked to discover that somebody has been secretly filming her and posting the photos online under the name Oblivion. Hearing that Marcus has had an accident, Cassie decides to quit her job but before she can, another work colleague, Jakob, admits to taking the photos because he idolizes her with a pure, asexual love. She responds by hitting him.

Cassie goes to Wales to see her family, accompanied by Jake. As things go along, Cassie is no longer Jake's mysterious model.

Cook is now living with sometime-girlfriend Emma in Manchester and drug-running for gangster Louie along with Louie's henchmen Jason and Rob. He is extremely secretive about his past. Louie entrusts him with driving his girlfriend Charlie as she is house-hunting, though Cook is surprised when she asks to be dropped off at a council estate. At a party Cook intervenes when Jason tries to have rough sex with an unwilling Charlie and gets beaten up for his pains. Emma cleans him up but he advises Charlie to be wary of Louie and finally admits to her that he has killed a man. They end up having sex. At the house-warming party, Louie reveals that he knows that Charlie has been unfaithful and drowns Jason in the swimming pool. Cook tells Emma he thinks that they should leave Manchester, but as they are driving away he gets a call for help from Charlie and, against Emma's advice, heads back to her.

Cook, Charlie and Emma are on the run. They take refuge in Emma's parent's house in the middle of nowhere. Things start to get worse as Louie finds them.