No longer able to say "Please Sir!" when they have a problem, Form 5C from Fenn Street Secondary Modern are out in the cold hard world. But school friendships die hard and the mob determine to preserve their group identity.
Things are not going too smoothly for Eric and Sharon. While Eric is busy having a brush with the Law, Sharon realises that there are other fish in the sea. It is then that ace "tec" Frankie Abbott comes onto the scene - on his first case!
The Fenn Street Gang get a new member - Bernard Hedges
Dennis knows who his real friends are - or does he? Things come to a head when Maureen takes him to a party
Penny (Bernard's wife) decides that a woman's place is certainly not at home but the problem is keeping her job a secret from Bernard, who has rather old-fashioned views on women. Because, when at last he does get off the dole, his new job brings him into contact with all sorts of people.
The course of Duffy's and Sharon's true love never did run very smoothly, but as they grow older it becomes positively bumpy. When Sharon meets a sensitive student and Duffy gets his first taste of real competition, something just has to give . . .
Bernard still waits to start work at London University, while at home the bills keep on piling up. When a friend suggests a lucrative part-time job, he jumps at the chance but the kind of work involved makes him wished that he had looked before he leaped . . .
When the career of "Hank" Abbott, private detective come to an inglorious end, the British Army opens its arms to a new recruit. Had the Army realised what it was getting, the open arms might well have become clenched fists.
When Dennis leaves home he finds he's taken on more than he can handle. So has Eric. He's taken on Peter Craven in an optimistic attempt to contemplate a decorating job.
The final dust-up between Duffy and Sharon; Abbott in hospital with a stab wound; Dunstable's flat as a rendezvous . . .
Dennis falls into bad company and is introduced to Russian bitter. The result is an appearance in the Magistrate's Court. Bad enough, you may think, but when Duffy, Craven and Mr Smith (one of their old teachers) appear for the defence, things go from bad to worse.
Duffy is feeling the strain of separation from Sharon but is not above chatting up a bird - especially when her father is in a position to put a bit of business his way.
Maureen is a bundle of nerves as she waits for her "O" level results which will affect her nursing career. What better cure for the nerves than a nice date with a "nice chap"? So Duffy and Craven, with the best will in the world, pick the "nice chap". But where there is a will there is not always a way.
Until now, Frankie Abbott's mother has kept the awful secret of his father private. But Frankie is growing up - even if he is 10 years late about it - and his questions finally reveal the skeleton in mum's cupboard.
The happiest day of a girl's life is her wedding day - that is unless she's being married from the Duffy household! The whole affair of the wedding of Duffy's cousin, Deborah, however, is somewhat complicated by Maureen's kidnapping, and the assistance of Frankie "nurse" Abbott.
Eric and Sharon get back together and the gang have a day out at the seaside. When they decide to stay the night in a hotel, Eric and Sharon get themselves into all kinds of trouble.
With a bit of help from Craven, Dennis Dunstable tries to make his abusive alcoholic dad turn over a new leaf.
Dennis has to decide how to spend his birthday money, and spends it on a horse at an auction.
Frankie Abbott hits town looking for a new girlfriend.
A road accident means that the Fenn Street Gang become shop-keepers.
Sharon's job at the boutique is in jeopardy when she is blamed for not spotting a gang of shop-lifters. It seems things can't get any worse, and then Frankie gets the job of store detective . . .