When Danny Brogan, his wife Evelyn, and their teenage twins Zoë and Mark move to Meadowlands, they seem to have landed on their feet in a 21st-century suburban paradise. But the Brogans are on the run from a dangerous past and are here to create a new life as part of a protective custody program. The tensions within the family are immediately clear – Mark isn’t speaking (twin Zoë speaks on his behalf) and although Danny tries to make the best of their new life, the rest of the family don’t share his enthusiasm.

It is not long before Samantha, their Protective Custody handler, reveals that in fact everyone in Meadowlands is in the same situation and that they, like everyone else there, cannot leave the community, even for a shopping expedition. This revelation certainly explains the slight oddness of some of the residents the Brogans have already met – Brenda, their bubbly, over-excitable neighbour; Wintersgill, the slightly sinister local copper; intense GP Dr York, who almost instantly becomes infatuated with Evelyn; handyman and resident bad boy Jack Donnelly whose flirting with Zoë as a threatening tone; and Personal Trainer Freddie, whose relentlessly positive demeanour doesn’t quite ring true…

Nevertheless, Danny wants to make this work and suggests a housewarming party to help the family settle in. Brenda is the first to agree to come and tells them that her daughter Jezebel, the reputed town beauty, will also be there. Later, undressing in her bedroom she sees Mark watching her from his window but she doesn’t close the curtains. Zoë and Jack Donnelly’s flirtation turns nasty and Danny throws Jack out of the house. That night, Danny goes to play football where he soon finds himself embroiled in a running battle with Jack Donnelly. Wintersgill intervenes and attacks Donnelly with such violence that Jack stops breathing and Danny has to resuscitate him.

At the housewarming the following evening Dr York arrives and tells Evelyn that he loves her, before introducing her to his wife, Abigail. Jezebel arrives and the Brogans are surprised to see that this reputed beauty weighs at least 16 stone. Mark tells her she’s beautiful and his family are astounded that he is speaking again. Meanwhile, Jack Donnelly tells Samantha that he wants to leave Meadowlands and she tells him he will be picked up the following night.

The morning after the party, Danny floats the idea of he and Evelyn having another baby – Evelyn says she’ll think about it. She later goes to Jack Donnelly’s workshop to ask him to come and fix their broken shower and sees Abigail leaving furtively. When Jack arrives at the Brogans’ Danny notices a stranger in a blue cap watching the house and thinks he recognises him from life before Meadowlands...

He later finds the man sitting in the living room and Evelyn introduces him as their new neighbour, Gordon Ormond, although Danny remains suspicious. Zoë realises that Jack is sexual aroused by fear in others and tries to convince him that she can help him overcome this but Jack scares her away. York and Abigail persuade Evelyn to come to dinner and to bring Zoë, even though Danny has declined the invitation – he wants to find out more about Ormond. He breaks into Ormond’s house and finds it empty apart from some instruments of torture. Panicked, Danny phones Evelyn at the Yorks’ and, hearing that Mark is home alone, sprints home, pursued unseen by Ormond, who spots him leaving his house.

Meanwhile, Jack Donnelly realises that he does want Zoë’s help and he races round to the Brogan house, where instead he finds Mark dressed in Zoë’s clothes. Mark’s expression of terror excites Donnelly and he gives in to the beast within. He is about to brutally rape Mark when Danny arrives. He grabs Donnelly and punches him again and again, with shocking violence as all that has happened to him over the last few months comes to the surface…