London, 1988. Simone Burbeck's life appears perfect. She lives in a mansion in London with her perfect husband and children, and her life is a merry-go-round of expensive renovations, dinner parties and school fundraisers. There's just one problem: it's all lies.

When her husband has a fatal heart attack in a disastrous session with a prostitute, the true state of their finances is revealed. Simone is broke, homeless and a social outcast. With no other options and two children to care for, she is forced to return to her family home in Newcastle, Australia. It turns out Simone's past isn't quite the story that she told everyone in London. Nothing about Simone is what it appears to be. Oh, and her real name is Sammy.

Sammy plans to cool her heels in Newcastle while she figures out a strategy to get back to London. However, the life and the people she ran away from over 20 years ago slowly pull her back in. Sammy thought she could simply shut the door on her past. But her past is about to bash that door down.

In Series 2, having made it out of Australia, we find Sammy and her kids living in a tiny London flat while she frantically tries to prove that her lawyer stole her house. Barely able to make ends meet working in exhaust management (she's a secretary in a muffler repair shop), Sammy is desperate to find a way back to her opulent London life. She must also keep her kids far away from Newcastle and the truth about what happened to their neighbour, Terry Harris.

Meanwhile back in Australia, local Newcastle cop, Bobsun Dugnutt, heads up Terry's missing person case. Bobsun smells a rat and does not believe that Terry would just disappear. Determined to leave no stone unturned, and constantly egged on by Fiona, his crime-obsessed girlfriend, Bobsun circles in on all the people Sammy and the kids left behind.

With Uncle Jim, Jean and Abby left to hold the line, and con artist Bev - now heavily pregnant- lurking on the scene, it's only a matter of time until Sammy is called back to be a key witness in the case.