As the new school year begins Jack Sheffield prepares for an even more eventful year than usual. A new teacher is appointed and before long tongues start to wag. Meanwhile five-year-old Madonna Fazackerly makes her mark in an unexpected way life changes dramatically for Ruby the caretaker and in the village coffee shop Dorothy Humpleby plans a dirty weekend. It's the era of the new CD player Microsoft Word the McDonald's McNugget cabbage patch dolls the threat of a miners' strike and a final farewell to the halfpenny piece.