During a long, hot summer on the Thamesmead Estate in Southeast London, three teenagers edge towards adulthood.
British academics Loretta and Bridget run into Sandra, an old school friend at a book launch. Although Sandra appears to be gay and carefree, Loretta notices an undercurrent of tension while Sandra stays with her for a few days. Loretta is saddened to learn her friend was killed in a car accident, and comforts Sandra's estranged husband Tom, her daughter Lizzie, and emotionally disturbed son Felix. While doing so she becomes to believe the accident may not be what it seems, spurred on by the information a local policeman provides her.
Britain in the very near future. In an abandoned hotel, a young female doctor and a middle-aged scientist are interrogated separately. The question they are both asked is 'Where is Martin Pitt?'
An illegal psychic teleportation experiment goes horribly wrong, and pretentious promo director Patrick gets his genes mixed with those of a football hooligan. Slowly, he begins to change - taking on some undeniably yobbish tendencies.
During the '80s, a young man named Frankie dreams of escaping London's South East region, and his mother's thug of a boyfriend gives him just the opportunity. After beating up the abusive beau, Frankie runs off to Spain, where he lands a job delivering a package to the dapper Playboy Charlie, a gangster who takes him under his wing. Working as Charlie's driver, Frankie is immersed in a world of fast cars and pretty women -- but all the excess could be his undoing.
A retired British soldier struggles to adjust to everyday life, with increasing difficulty.
Barbara and Naseem are in the same hospital, having babies. They make friends. But the celebrations of their husbands, Kenny and Quereshi, 'Jimmy', lead to a headlong chase, with crazy mix-ups, collisions and brushes with the law