The peace of rural Somerset is shattered when animal-loving Meg Sunningdale moves to the small village of Withycombe. Meg fiercely protects all creatures great and small, a view at odds with some of the locals, especially when she takes to feeding the local badgers. Matters come to a head when she erects posters naming and shaming one of the villagers for taking part in a government backed cull to prevent tuberculosis spreading in cattle, resulting in him and his family being driven out by an animal rights backlash. Though Meg receives a police caution, the trouble does not end there. Animal Rights activists start turning up in droves – leaving the village under siege and Meg's relations with her neighbours beyond repair. In Woodford Green, friendships are thrown out of the window when Tariq Ahmed's plans to extend his three-bedroom end-of-terrace house into a five bedroom mansion lead to untold misery for his neighbours Helen Coughlan and Tony and Veronica Martin.