Lindsay Carter is a woman whose husband has spent four years in prison for robbery, and has to keep her family in order. Her wayward children include a daughter obsessed with becoming the new Naomi Campbell and another who is blackmailing her deputy headmistress so she can bunk off school.
It's a long hard day for Lindsay and it goes from bad to worse. It's the day of Mack's trial and everyone is expecting a short sentence but, things don't go to plan and life as the Carter family knows it is about to change. Not only does Linday have to deal with Macks' trial she also has to sort out the mess created by her children and spends her day working with Chinese Triads to Deputy Headteachers, not to mention a visit or two from Sgt Bain surrounding the affairs of her family. But, things start to look up after Taylor's graduation and Lindsay declares that from this day forward the Carter families going straight.
On her mission to get the family back on the straight and narrow, Lindsay starts her new job at the garden centre. But, when a good lorry goes missing Linday's put in the frame and suspended, determined to clear her name she sets out contacting all of her contacts, but is the real culprit closer to home. Meanwhile, Lindsay's not the only one who trying to keep busy. Lianna is back causing trouble at school, Kacie's still trying to become the perfect model and Vin's on a breakout mission of his own. Will, the Carter's ever be able to stay on the right side of the law.
The new-found poverty is really starting to bite in the Carter family but that’s not what’s getting Lindsay down. Nor is it the relentless boredom of working in the garden centre - Lindsay’s lonely. The reality of spending the next four years without her husband has really hit home. An old friend of the family, Owen turns up. He and his wife have just split up and he needs Lindsay to help him out with his car sales business. She’d be doing him a favour and it’s got to be better to be working in an office and being paid properly, than a life with Clive and garden centre wages. Lindsay’s more than happy to jack in her job and go and work for Owen, who happens to be extremely good-looking too. When Mack learns about this from Vin, he is furious. As for Taylor, life as the perfect Carter child is getting him down. He’s feeling guilty at work for snagging the job under false pretences and he’s permanently worried that he might get found out. He’s also feeling trapped by his relationship with Catherine. So when Vin comes to him with a crazy suggestion, Taylor actually listens.
In an ironic twist, Lindsay is working at an insurance company – the sort of place that pays out when someone like the Carters rob your house. Soon she discovers that her colleagues are working a scam of their own, approving each other’s fraudulent claims. Lindsay, determined not to return to her previous life, doesn’t want any part of it, but will her refusal put the new job in jeopardy? Meanwhile, Lianna is growing increasingly concerned that Grandpa might be getting it on with Margaret (who, before the op, used to be his cell-mate Mark). Taylor, haunted by his unforgettable night with Vicky Hong, dumps Catherine and pursues Vicky – made more difficult by the fact that she thinks she slept with his twin brother Vin and not him. Elsewhere, hapless twin brother Vin gets tangled up with Mrs Hong and finds himself in hospital.
Lindsay sets herself up in business with some friends. It’s not an entirely unpleasant surprise for Vin and Reza when they come home one evening to find the house full of scantily-clad babes modelling Lindsay’s new business – lingerie. It’s all going well – orders are coming in, happy punters depart with their purchases, life is sweet. That is until one of Lindsay’s business partners, Chrissie, gives a large chunk of order money to her boyfriend who says he’ll pay it back the next day after he’s done a deal on something. Suffice to say the money doesn’t come back and the deal isn’t just a deal – it’s the biggest drugs deal the area’s seen in a long time. Naturally, it doesn’t take long for Sergeant Bain to start sniffing around. Meanwhile, Kacie finds herself splashed all over the press – she’s been having an affair with a Z-list celebrity. A married one at that. Will Kacie be able to turn the situation to her advantage?
When Lindsay is cast as the neighbourhood grass who tipped off the police about the drugs deal, she’s vilified by local criminal families. Even Mack starts to doubt her – she chose the straight life and if she’s not with them she is against them. Lindsay sets about trying to clear her name. Everywhere she goes it seems Bain is there, and there’s something a little too disconcerting about how he features in her thoughts so much. Vin has realised if he’s to be a proper father to his child, he needs to get some money together, so he nicks a car to sell on for some fast cash but as luck would have it he finds £200k in the boot. However, the car he stole was part of a major job being pulled by some serious crooks so when Vin gets nicked for the car it is assumed that he played a role in the job – he could be facing eight years in the slammer.
