Down-trodden single parent Carol works in a phone warehouse - from which she steals phones which she sells to a Chinese girl fence called Ying - gets no help with her lazy, vicious sons from her useless ex-husband Kieran. When one of the boys, Dean, attacks his girlfriend Tracey, he and his brother Terry kick an innocent onlooker to death. Carol finds blood on their clothes which they explain as being obtained in a fight and when the police call she initially covers for the boys. Ultimately she learns from Tracey what actually happened but Kieran brutally advises her to keep quiet. Carol disagrees and, realizing that the boys will turn into copies of their father, knows what she must do.

Kasia is informed that her boyfriend Tomek was killed by Carol's sons but there are other shocks to follow. He was also seeing another woman, lap dancer Tara, though when the two meet they actually get on. Tomek was also involved in a racket whereby he and his partner Piotr arranged sham marriages for money to give citizenship to illegal immigrants but Piotr tells Kasia that Tomek gambled away all his earnings and there is nothing for her. Kasia reluctantly agrees to marry Indian Rakesh in exchange for three thousand pounds but discovers a large cache of money hidden at Piotr's flat and realises that he has lied to her. She steals the money, giving some to Tara for Tomek's funeral, and flees with the rest. Piotr gives chase but she escapes from him and gets onto a train where Carol is a fellow passenger.