Tracy Beaker Returns

Tracy Beaker has published a book, but later she is arrested by the police for using Cam's credit card to publish it. At the police station, Tracy meets Liam and an old friend, Mike. Cam later drops the charges, but Tracy needs a job so she can repay back Cam's money. Mike offers Tracy the job at the Dumping Ground, but Gina thinks Tracy is trouble since she was arrested.

It is Tracy's first day at the Dumping Ground and already she is late for work. She made a promise to the kids, but she breaks it and upsets Gus on his guided tour. Tracy then finds a letter from her real mum in the filing cabinets in the office that was hidden when Tracy was in the Dumping Ground and which Mike and Cam have been hiding for years. Liam returns to the Dumping Ground after being kicked out by his foster parents, and Lily is jealous when Carmen begins mothering Poppy and Rosie.

Toby is convinced that he is jinxed, but Tracy tries to prove that there is no such thing has bad luck and Toby will be meeting his new foster family. Tracy writes an article about Toby called "Bad Luck Boy", but ends up regretting her actions when she finds out that Toby's parents died in a car crash for which he has blamed himself ever since. Meanwhile, Sapphire has got concert tickets from her dad, but Gina won't let her go because her dad is irresponsible.

When Tracy is told to enforce the cleaning rota, Johnny believes it will get him and his sister, Tee, fostered and starts volunteering himself and Tee for everyone's chores in return for gold stars in his file. But Tracy's attempt to deal with the situation results in Tee getting injured, and she is forced to reconsider her future at the Dumping Ground, whilst Johnny realises he has anger problems. Meanwhile, Liam and best friend Frank try to make money by selling copies of Tracy's book, but the books end up being taken away to the recycling centre.

When Lily and her sisters get fostered, Carmen's loneliness puts her into conflict with the other residents when they shun her due to having problems of their own. But a devastated Carmen takes this personally and plots revenge on everyone, prompting Tracy to take actions to unite the kids.

Gina is out, and Mike is sick leaving Tracy in charge of a night shift. Gina doesn't trust her because things will go bad when Tracy is around with kids. In the Dumping Ground, things have gone bad: Liam and Frank have gone out selling pizzas; Carmen and Tee's bedtimes have been shifted; Sapphire asks Tracy if she can have a bolt for the door of her room and, when Tracy agrees, takes the bolt off the toilet door; Gus's room is wrecked by Sapphire; and Gus pees in the wastepaper bin in Sapphire's bedroom. Can Tracy resolved this problem or will she get sacked?

Tracy finds stolen video games in Sapphire's room and soon discovers they don't belong to her. Meanwhile, Liam and Frank find out that Gus's notebooks are filled with people's secrets, through which Liam, Frank, Gina and Mike find out a lot more about each other. Tracy then discovers that Sapphire's boyfriend, Ferris, has been stealing the goods and giving them to Sapphire to hide in her room; after Ferris tells Tracy what happened, Ferris decides to take back what he stole and they both go back to the Dumping Ground. When Tracy calls a police officer she knows to come and discuss her newspaper columns, Ferris gets the wrong idea when the officer arrives at the Dumping Ground and claims that Sapphire stole the games. After much arguing, Ferris finally owns up to what he did and is taken away along with the evidence. Gus finally finds out that people have been reading his notebooks, but surprisingly says that they can look at them whenever they feel like – but only with his permission first.

Following an incident with her foster parents about the custody of Rosie and Poppy, Lily is sent back to the Dumping Ground. Tracy tries to show Matt and Christie Perry that Lily has learned her lesson, but Lily becomes maternal again and shouts at Matt and Christie for giving Poppy tuna. Meanwhile, Tee hides a sheep in the Dumping Ground, and Gus is desperate to get to his orchestra audition on time. Tracy decides to take Lily to Rosie and Poppy's new home to try to get the foster parents to see that Lily wants to be a family, but this all goes wrong as Lily then shouts at the foster parents for giving Poppy tuna, which Lily says she doesn't like. Lily accidentally makes her sisters cry, and the foster parents tell Tracy and Lily to never return to their house. Finally, Gus gets to the audition on time, but is too late to start, so Tracy takes them back to the Dumping Ground where the people from the auditions come to the Dumping Ground to see Gus finally play. Meanwhile, Tee enlists Sapphire's help in acquiring a pet sheep, but soon realises it is too much for her.

Toby and all the other boys at the Dumping Ground have to lie about being a family when they win a free holiday to Florida. However, the competition announcer, Terrie, tricks them into buying the holiday with Mike's credit card. Meanwhile, Tracy is learning how to drive under Cam's guidance, and Carmen is determined to cheer Lily up so she decides to get her a hamster named Mr. Hamster in order to make her happy again. Toby and the other boys decide that they have been scammed and they break into Terrie's office and Toby steals the memory stick with all Terrie's files on it containing past clients' information. Terrie chases after them, but Toby phones Tracy while taking her driving test to drive them back to the Dumping Ground. When they return, Mike has already discovered that they had used his credit card. Terrie follows them back to the house and orders Toby to give back the memory stick he stole and says it was his fault for telling them that he was over 18, but listening back on the phone conversation this turns out to be untrue and Terrie is finally defeated and gives back Mike's money. To make Toby happy about not winning the holiday, Lily and Carmen give Mr. Hamster to him.

Carmen's mother, Helen, turns up at the Dumping Ground wanting to see her daughter, but Carmen refuses to see her after many years ago, Helen Howle left Carmen for her boyfriend Lee. Helen tells Mike that she has changed her ways. After having a talk with Lily, Carmen decides to go out shopping with Helen. Helen asks Carmen to come and live with her in Spain, she gives Carmen some time to decide to take the offer or to leave it. Mike tells Carmen that she can go and live with Helen if she wants to. Meanwhile, Tracy, Mike and Gina trick the kids into thinking there's been a power cut, because there's been a lot of arguments, so they all have a barbecue as a family. Carmen decides that she should take the chance and go and live with her mother in Spain, but before leaving, Helen's old boyfriend, Lee, phones her and Helen tells Carmen that Lee and her have decided to give the relationship another go and that Carmen can come and live with them when they buy a bigger place. Carmen and Mike then order Helen to leave the Dumping Ground once and for all, but Tracy wants the last word and tells Helen that she has always been thinking of herself, that she is selfish, and tells Helen to go back to Spain and never return to the Dumping Ground.

When playing a simple game of football, Carmen goes to fetch the ball which has been kicked into the bush, but then sees something that looks like a werewolf in the bush which makes her scream. Mike investigates the bush to see if anything is inside it, but finds nothing. Carmen insists that the monster is alive and is hiding somewhere. Sapphire later finds out that the "werewolf" is none other than her brother, Riff Fox, who has run away from home to see her. Sapphire tries to hide Riff from everyone, but all the kids except Carmen soon find out and they all decide to keep the secret from Gina and Mike. Carmen then spots Riff for a brief second and asks who it is, but Sapphire tells her that it is a ghost that lives in the Dumping Ground so Carmen decides to lock herself in her room until everyone believes her stories are true. Riff decides to follow his heart and find his father. Sapphire tries to make Riff stay, but ends up agreeing to go with him, but when Tracy spots them at the bus stop, Sapphire realises that the Dumping Ground isn't all that bad. Riff decides to go back home, but before he does he gives Sapphire his new phone and tells her to ring him at any time. Just as they hug each other, Carmen walks downstairs and, seeing Riff for the first time, shouts "Ghost!", thinking that he is still the ghost.

Mike takes everyone to the beach for a day. But the journey is very bad. Service station mayhem, petrol pandemonium and sat-nav mess abouts. But all that is about to pay off when the gang finally get to have a day at the beach.

Tracy is offered a job in London to become a full-time reporter, but she has to write a test article on the kids in care. When she tells the kids, they lose their tempers and refuse to help her because they all want her to stay. Mike asks Cam to consider fostering one of the other kids if Tracy leaves, but Cam says she can't if Tracy doesn't get the job because the kids won't co-operate. Johnny overhears this conversation and wants to be fostered by Cam so he and Tee help Tracy. Lily refuses to help as she thinks that if Tracy goes; then she can't get back with Poppy and Rosie. Johnny confronts Lily and tells her Tee will help Tracy Lily then comes back with "You don't decide what Tee does" and then they argue until Johnny says "Just cos' you lost your sister don't start poking your nose in with mine", Lily gets mad and starts hitting Johnny. (However, unlike in Drained where Johnny retaliates when Carmen attacks him, he doesn't lay a finger on Lily. Instead, he looks really upset with what he's done.) Eventually, every child helps Tracy in secrecy so no other children know. Tracy takes the article to the editor who gives her the job. Surprisingly, Tracy turns down the job, claiming that the Dumping Ground is the place she wants to be, saying that she would miss the kids too much. Despite this, the article is published in the newspaper,and the kids realise they all helped, and Tracy is welcomed back to the Dumping Ground once more.