Shay Ryan talks to his AA group about the time he became he was an alcoholic following a robbery at the betting shop that he managed. Shay finds out from a woman called Madeleine that he has not seen for 16 years that he has a son. Shay is surprised when he finds out that his son, Otto, suffers with Down's syndrome. Shay decides that he cant face his son and continues to drink. Shay realises he has failed his son and tries to stop drinking. Six months later without a drink, Shay hopes that Madeleine and Otto will forgive him.

Working an extra night shift because he needs the money, kindly taxi driver Eddie picks up Ojo, an African asylum seeker. Ojo's accommodation is closed for the night and so Eddie takes him home with him. Despite the language barrier the two men form a friendship but less liberal neighbours are not so pleased and Eddie's wife Margie, having given him an ultimatum, leaves him.

Kieran is a bit of a loner who was raised by grandfather. He believes that the Polish community is to blame for his granddad's missed chance of playing football for Manchester City. Kieran and his friend Duffy are out one night and Duffy ends up rescuing a Polish girl from a burning building. Duffy gets Kieran to take the credit as he is on invalidity benefit and Kieran becomes a local hero but things soon become complicated.

Margie moves back in with her father for a while following his stroke. Eddie and David are left home alone when Leanne goes back home too. Eddie tries to convince Margie not to go. Eddie's new work college Sandra sets her sights on him. Things don't go to plan when Eddie takes Margie out to dinner to talk about recent events.

Cath lives on the street with her three children, the eldest of whom is Ian. Husband Vinnie is in prison, awaiting trial following a drugs deal. Jan, Cath’s sister, lives across the street with husband Danny and their only son, Gary. Gary has been accepted into the Navy, and Ian joins his cousin for a night out. After a pub crawl, they head home in a taxi, but Gary gets out to be sick. When Ian shouts at the driver to stop and wait for his cousin, he becomes violent. Gary arrives at the scene and lays into the driver, slamming his head in the cab door. With the driver unconscious, Ian persuades Gary to run off but as other cab drivers arrive, they automatically assume that Ian is to blame. Will Gary do the right thing and confess?

Sean O'Neill lives unhappily with his wife, Yvonne, and their three young children. Sean struggles to conceal his temper and regularly beats up Yvonne as she tries to conceal the marital abuse from her family and finds it difficult to walk away from him. Yvonne's Irish mum, Mary and sister, Kerry aren't so easily deceived. Kerry arrives offering support much to the annoyance of Sean. Finally plucking up the courage to end her marriage, Yvonne gets Kerry's partner Alex to change the locks so Sean can't get into the house. But getting Sean out of her life proves impossible with him demanding access to the kids. As events spiral out of control Sean beats up Alex. It's all too much for Mary who dies suddenly after watching Alex being beat up. Recalling Mary's jibe to Sean that he'd be 'in the ground' before she was, Yvonne and Kerry ensure the prophecy comes true. They corner a drunken Sean and beat him to death with baseball bats, and dispose of the body in the plot that shortly afterwards sees Mary's coffin lowered into it.

Street resident Eddie (Timothy Spall) is in his taxi when he picks up Bob, who's married to his childhood sweetheart, Pat. Eddie can’t resist seeing his first love again, and accepts Bob’s invitation to a charity event. Back home, wife Margie (Ger Ryan) agrees to go along, as she doesn’t like the idea of him seeing Pat. However, when showering, Margie discovers a lump in her breast and cancels her evening out. Oblivious to Margie’s upset, Eddie storms out and drinks the evening away. But in a drunken attempt to impress Pat, he pays way over the odds for a set of signed snooker balls. The morning after he fails a breathalyser test and loses his licence and his job. All the while, he's ignorant of the terrible secret that is gnawing away at his long-suffering wife.

Stanley McDermott, a man you could set your clock by, finds himself locked out of his work three weeks short of his 65th birthday. To the despair of his wife Brenda, he starts to contemplate the meaning of life until a bittersweet twist of tragedy next door offers him a glimmer of hope.

Dee falls in love with a local plumber after she moves to the street so that she can get her children into a better school. Their happiness is threatened though when she meets his father.

When Paddy bans Thomas Miller's son from his pub he finds himself on the wrong side of the local gangster.