Eight months have elapsed. Debbie has joined the Army and left the area. On his fiftieth birthday Frank saves librarian Libby from being run over and believes she is the one for him,despite her narcolepsy and interfering mother. Frank is also present when Nin,his grandmother,kills the severely disabled husband whose care has been a long-time burden to her and who revels in the relative luxury of being sent to jail and waited on. Whilst Joe is trying to persuade the heavily pregnant Karen to go away with him she goes into labour and he delivers the baby. At the ...

Baby Connor's christening day looms but Karen still finds herself attracted to Joe. Mimi organizes the proceedings,denying Kelly her wish to be godmother,which requires a little chicanery on the part of Kelly and Shane to ensure that Mimi's first choice fails to show. Shane and Jamie refuse to join Paddy in the family 'business' and he rejects Micky as being too stupid. However when Paddy goes missing only Micky bothers to look for him and Mimi insists Paddy apologize - which Paddy does,in a very bizarre and not wholly successful manner when he is called upon to be ...

Ian and Micky are living in Danny's old house and Maxine joins them after rowing with Carel over his drinking. At his new school Liam falls for classmate Holly and tells her his father is dead as he is ashamed of Frank. However,when Frank is called to the school and Holly lets fly at him Liam shows his loyalty to his father. Karen succumbs to severe post-natal depression leading to a breakdown and hospitalization whilst Yvonne and Stan,having scammed Paddy out of the money they owe him,do a runner,selling the shop to Joe,in whose care they leave Chesney.

With Karen in hospital still Mimi leaves Paddy to help Jamie run the Jockey and acquires a toy-boy,Billy,the pub's football team's star - but under-age - striker. However,when he becomes infatuated with her Mimi has to pull a bizarre stunt to frighten him out of town. Paddy,meanwhile,failing to pull at the disco pays Kelly for sex and Chesney watches Joe getting barred from every casino in town for cheating. Frank,temporarily blinded by boot-leg vodka,has a bizarre sexual encounter.

Karen returns home and is cared for by Mimi,who tries to keep her daughter-in-law's illness a secret. However Jamie finds it hard to accept and on a night out has casual sex with Michelle,who runs an escort agency. Maxine gets Ian to pose as her boyfriend to impress her parents, a fact which makes both Carl and Micky jealous and when Micky catches the couple in bed together and tells Carl the brothers end up fighting. Kelly runs Lilian's brothel in her absence and does well, but refuses to cut Paddy in as he requests her to.

Paddy has met a woman called D'reen who shares his love of salsa and with whom he hopes to emigrate to Cuba but Mimi commits him to a final job,robbing the family's enemy,the psychopathic Roscoe. With the bailiffs calling on the Gallaghers Liam has to make money fast by joining Joe on his illicit gambling. Ian and Carl are still at loggerheads over Maxine and Jamie,as well as helping his father,is working as a male escort for Michelle as Karen sinks under the weight of her post-natal depression,rejecting Connor.

Having served a short prison term for inciting a riot over the library closure Libby is back,driving a mobile library van and,after some misgivings,Frank agrees they should make a go of it. Lilian buys a HD television whose white noise leads her to believe that she has a link to the after-life and conducts a seance but it turns out to be a technical fault. After Karen accuses him of infidelity Jamie quits working as a male escort and Carl willingly takes his place.

As Libby and Patty move in Frank offers to paint Patty's room but,when he falls over absconding with the paint,he feigns injury to get out of the task before buying cheap road marker paint from the workmen. Karen improves but Kelly,ashamed of her session with Paddy,repeatedly turns down Shane's marriage proposals until Paddy tells his son the truth and the couple wed. Chesney and Carl go on the run after seeing the ultra-violent Jimmy beat to death a boy who has sex with his sister and threaten to claim that Chesney was the killer.

The council ask the residents to make a film to improve the estate's image though Micky's violent take on 'Taxi Driver' is not what they expected. Meanwhile the Gallaghers use the filming to shadow Jimmy but when Ian confronts him he gets a severe beating. Chesney and Carl hole up with the free-spirited Hazel on her cannabis farm in Wales but she is also hiding a deadly secret and Carl decides to return home. Mimi joins the W.I. to soften her image and gets her revenge when the others look down on her.

Chesney and Carl return to the estate,hiding out with Joe,who dissuades Carl from shooting Jimmy. Eventually Shane,increasingly angry at how the cocky Jimmy and his gang see themselves as beyond the law whilst terrorising the Gallaghers,persuades his family to take them on and teach them a lesson. Maxine persuades Jimmy's sister to tell the police the truth and the fugitives are cleared though Maxine still aborts Carl's child. Shane also finds that he is infertile,leading to his family offering to be sperm donors though Kelly declines their offer as she and Shane ...

Missing Debbie,who has been posted to Afghanistan,and getting on badly with Libby,Liam spends more and more time visiting Reggie,an elderly ex-Spitfire pilot whom he has been seeing to help with his World War Two school project. Libby and Carl suspect that Reggie is a paedophile but he is just a lonely old man who dies in Liam's presence. Maxine's gay brother Bruce turns up,claiming his father Cameron hit him and threw him out. Cameron follows and Frank,rather unusually,offers Cameron advice on paternal tolerance. Joe opens out to Karen as he tells her he is attending...

Libby makes it clear to Frank she wants a child but she and Liam do reconcile. However,at the Jockey's Talent Contest night it's Liam's new friend Dean who helps him win - approval. Ian is involved with the local boxing club and discovers that its owner Jock and Paddy have ill-feeling which goes back a long way. Jock owes Paddy money and to prevent him taking his gym he torches it. Fortunately Micky,recently accepted as a fireman,is on hand to act and to save Paddy - at long last gaining his father's respect.

When Kelly's fifteen year old sister Tonya arrives to stay her child has been taken into care but she has a chance of reclaiming it if she proves she can look after a robotic baby. However she dumps it on the Maguires whilst she goes out on the lash and Micky sadly acknowledges that her child would be better off without her though he rallies the family to scare off her father Homer,who is also the father of her baby. Frank accompanies Patty to Lourdes,where they masquerade as clerics to steal the altar wine and Frank appears to be on the receiving end of a miracle.

When Paddy plans to move on with new lady friend Rosalita he and Mimi decide to divorce,only to discover their marriage was never legal.so they have to get married again quickly to make the children legitimate. They hope to keep things secret but Micky finds out. After Frank has stolen from her Patty sets him up for benefit fraud,leading to a day in the cells for them both whilst Micky gets picked up by attractive Gary. Unfortunately Gary thinks Micky is Paddy and is only sleeping with him for the status,which he publicly declares.

Bruce,now live-in barman at the Jockey,takes over the football team and enters them in an all gay football contest,much to the disgust of Chesney. Maxine meets her old art teacher,Marc,recently widowed,and agrees to pose topless for his class. However she turns down a relationship with him so as not to betray Ian. Joe learns of his father's death on his birthday and determines to run away with Karen and Connor. However Ian follows and,when Joe violently attacks Karen,who wants to return to Jamie,he brains him.

Helped by his friend Anto Joe flees the estate with Karen and Connor but when Karen expresses a desire to return to Jamie,Joe gets violent,trying to strangle her. Fortunately Ian has followed and kills him. Back at the Jockey,the scene for a weapons amnesty,Roscoe,whom the Maguires scammed out of counterfeit money,bursts in with his gang and takes everybody hostage,threatening to shoot Shane and Jamie. However Frank,Bruce and Micky,who are in the cellar,access the handed in guns and succeed in saving the day by arming everybody... except Mimi,who is upstairs. The ...