Ex-con Paul is desperately trying to keep his business, A to Z Decorators, afloat. His workmates are fellow ex-prisoners - the volatile Terry and bookish ex-drug addict Dino - and their clients aren't exactly big time. As the cheques start bouncing and the debts pile up, Paul's wife Sheila wants him to give up and take a paid job with previous employers, the notorious King brothers, but Paul refuses to abandon his colleagues. Two potential contracts stand between them and oblivion. But one depends on Paul winning over Gregg, the obnoxious, racist site manager of the dodgy Hag Moor Estate; and the other, a potentially lucrative maintenance contract at the luxury private Willows estate, seems to have been sewn up already by the King brothers. As Terry finishes up at The Golden Hours Retirement Home and Dino is dispatched to clean up after his last job after complaints from the tyrannical Roger Forsyth, Paul puts his best efforts into securing the company's future. Terry's brother Ed has just got a job as security guard at the Willows and Paul pays him a visit, hoping he can help him get his foot in the door. He also persuades Sheila to accompany him on a visit to the local Indian restaurant to wine and dine Gregg, but he's unable to ignore Gregg's loathsome behaviour and the evening ends in disaster. With the cheque from Golden Hours bouncing, Dino distracted by a burgeoning relationship with Roger's downtrodden wife Marjorie, and Gregg last seen face-down in a plate of curry, is it all over for A to Z Decorators?