Shipping up as freshers at their shared house are: JP, public school boy with good teeth and an inflated sense of entitlement; Kingsley, charming and crushingly insecure; Josie, determined to experience 'new things'; socially-awkward know-it-all Howard, hard-living Vod; and Oregon, desperate to be cool and terrified of being boring. One by one, the six new students destined to be housemates congregate before term begins - although second year Howard has of course already been in solitary residence for some unspecified time.

The housemates are in social Siberia so they decide to throw a party, spearheaded by Josie in the hope that she and Kingsley will get together - a plan scuppered when Josie's boyfriend Dave turns up unxpectedly. Josie is saved from further embarrassment when Kingsley steps in to prevent one of JP's 'nobhead' friends revealing that she slept with him. Meanwhile, Oregon continues to cultivate her 'alternative' image, dented slightly by the revelation that she has a car.

Oregon and Prof Shales' flirtation reaches bizarre new levels when he pays her to clean his oven. Enticed by Ruth, the alluring drama queen, Kingsley rashly switches courses to drama. Josie enrols the other housemates in a charity dating scheme and is devastated when her date fails to show, although it later emerges he died shortly before, and she finds herself mourning the death of the potential partner she never met. Meanwhile JP worries that he might have forced himself upon his charity date, and Vod and Howard, suspiciously paired with one another, go on a date to an all-you-can-eat buffet....

Kingsley is forced to confess to Josie that he's a virgin, and she offers to 'cure' him. But the deal is undercut when Kingsley unexpectedly winds up having sex with drama queen Ruth. Unable to fess up to Josie, Kingsley nevertheless goes ahead with the plan. Oregon is unimpressed with Shales' cheap efforts at romanticism at a Travelodge, while Vod is forced to actually do some work and has an epiphany - enjoying the book she was meant to read. JP takes Howard under his wing in an attempt to 'humanise' him, but becomes increasingly dependent on him when they go on an expedition to acquire illegal substances.

During a student protest march in London, Vod and Oregon's friendship is threatened when Vod finds out about Oregon's secret affair with Shales. Kingsley pursues Ruth at the demo, but when they both get kettled with Josie, Kingsley's two-timing of the girls is revealed, and Kingsley and Josie fall out explosively. JP's initial plans to use the demo as a free trip to meet up with his mates in a London bar is scuppered as he gets caught up in the demo and radicalised. Meanwhile, Howard and his new best friend Brian have a 'man-date'.

JP finds out his father has serious health issues, and decides the best response is to take his first acid trip. Oregon is distraught to learn that her childhood horse is dying, culminating in the revelation that she isn't called Oregon at all, but Melissa. Meanwhile Vod has a drug overdose and starts to question her own lifestyle and behaviour. Kingsley and Josie compete with one another to become student journalists, with Kingsley unscrupulously using Vod's overdose as subject matter. Josie hits a new low and accepts a marriage proposal from Dave. And Howard has his first date with Geology Girl, but Brian jealousy resolves to sabotage it.