It is still the night of the bonfire party. Niamh decides she must tell Ambrose that the marriage is over. The next day, Niamh leaves Kieran with Siobhan and spends the day with Sean at the lake, and they discuss their future. Sean tells her that he loves her. Meanwhile, Ambrose goes for a walk while engrossed in thought about his troubled marriage when he sees two people in difficulty on the rocks below. He shouts to tell them that he will try to find a way for them to escape the incoming tide. Elsewhere, a Frenchman called D'Argan, has come to challenge ""the head man of the village"" to a balloon race. Donal and Liam go to find Brian who is the closets they can think of. Brian is uninterested until he discovers that the event is to complete a race started 200 years previously, and that £40,000 is at stake. However, Monsieur D'Argan has forgotten that the French economy has had one major change since Napoleonic times.

The sudden loss in Ballykissangel has left everyone in tears, particularly Niamh who must deal with the new changes in her life. In the meantime, Orla moves into a new cottage hoping for some freedom.

Liam and Donal have been sent to buy washed sand for a bunker on Brian's golf course. With fifty pounds in their pockets they reckon that sand from the beach will be just as good. While they are loading the sand onto a lorry, a car drives past at speed, stops, and the occupants push a large wooden chest into the sea. Liam and Donal open the chest and even though they're not sure what the contents are, bring it home. They later discover that the caviar inside is worth a lot of money. Sean and Niamh have not spoken since the funeral. Niamh talks to Father Aidan in the confessional and his advice is that she has to decide what is best for her. After much indecision, she agrees to meet Sean. She tells him that she is going to leave BallyK. Meanwhile, Orla and Conor have their first date - if it is a date. They are both intensely competitive and they end up racing around a muddy course on Quad Bikes.

Niamh has decided that she must move away from BallyK. The decision spurs Brian to sell Fitzgerald's. Two parties are interested. One is a retired civil servant from Dublin, who is looking for an investment. He manages to annoy Brian by talking about getting the pub ""up to scratch"". The second party is Oonagh Dooley, who is more interested in keeping the family atmosphere of the pub. Brian takes a liking to Oonagh, but he doesn't realise that she is the wife of his former enemy, Paul Dooley. When the deal with the civil servant falls through, Brian makes Oonagh and offer to rent the pub, leaving Niamh with some control. Emma and Sean fall out over driving lessons and Sean's and Niamh's relationship. Emma feels that Sean should be doing something. Niamh is grateful that Aidan has given her the freedom to make up her own mind.

A woman representing Australian mining interests arrives in BallyK looking for a ""man called Quigley"". If Brian can prove his relationship to another Quigley from BallyK, who owned an Australian gold mine in 1854, he stands to earn half a million Australian dollars. Brian's attempts to prove his relationship with jack Quigley are ambushed several times by bad luck until he eventually uncovers the evidence. But there are doubts about the genuineness of the Australian offer. Orla unexpectedly invites a man onto Conor's boat. She claims that he is a writer for a fishing guide, and a favourable review in the book will give Conor's business the boost it needs. But, if he is an expert, why doe he not use the correct bait? Is it just part of an elaborate cover-up to keep his true reason for being on board hidden? Imelda arrives to help Niamh, but her criticisms and barbed comments are too much to bear, and there is a frank exchange of views.

Paul Dooley is released from prison, having spent six months inside for tax fraud. Now bankrupt he does not know that his wife, Oonagh, has arranged a new life for him and their two children, Dermott and Grainne, in Ballykissangel. Paul is furious. As the Dooleys move in, Niamh moves out, planning to leave the village and move to the outskirts of Dublin. As she waits for the key to arrive at the Estate Agent's, she goes to a pub where she and Sean have spent some time in the past. Sean, who had earlier spotted in town, is already there. He tries to avoid her, but fails, and they sit together and fantasise about what a future together might have been like. They say goodbye. Romance is blossoming for Orla and Conor - or rather it would if it were not for the interruptions. Conor plans a romantic evening at Orla's cottage, but she has invited half the village to a party to celebrate keeping her job at Fitzgerald's.

The Headmaster's post is soon to be vacant and Brendan is in line for the job. He withdraws his name from the list of candidates when he sees a Christian Brother is one of the candidates, and with father Mac on the Board Brendan thinks the Brother has the job in the bag. When Sean points out that the Brother will be his boss, Brendan decides that he must go for the job, After a certain amount of swatting and worrying, he is successful. Paul is causing Oonagh problems: He decides to ""recycle"" the slops from the bar, takes in a paying guest for the night, even though there is no accommodation, and forces Orla to resign - briefly. Emma helps Danny's pig to give birth, and has to put up with Danny's mother hen act in the process.

Uncle Minto reckons that there is a fortune to be made with illegal spirits. He enlists the help of Liam and Donal to make it, and soon convinces Paul to buy a large consignment, behind Oonagh's back. Unfortunately, things don't go as they hope, and the scam does not go unnoticed - the pub's guest, Frankie, seems to know what's going on. A reluctant Orla lets Conor stay the night on her couch while his boat is being fixed. Things get decidedly awkward when he brings her breakfast in bed, and then Aidan arrives to see Conor doing the washing-up. Frankie turns out to be the new Garda.

Conor tells Orla that he has been offered some work in Spain, and wants to know if there is a future for them. She tells him to go. Frankie finds her own brand of justice for Paul - Community Service, painting the school gym. However, he gets all the others who had been involved in the illegal liquor scam to help him out, much to the dismay of Brian and Father Mac. Meanwhile, Brian has told Liam and Donal to cut the hedges at the golf course, but they get carried away with a bit of topiary. However, Brian is beginning to feel lonely with Niamh no longer around. When he sees the hedge, instead of telling the boys off he tells them he likes it, and asks them if they can do a giraffe - Kieran would like that. Then, he sees Sean outside Kathleen's shop, shopping for one, and gives him Niamh's address and telephone number.

Sean decides to go and see Niamh, although it turns out to be a far bigger experience than he had expected, what with ruining the market and racing through a stream to get Kieran. Meanwhile, Aiden is having trouble getting people to join the choir, and Orla doesn't help by telling a few lies to the Dooley children, which makes them think they are going to be on TV. Also, there is a young girl with a wonderful voice whose mother doesn't want her to have anything do with the church. At the close, Sean asks Niamh to marry him, and she tells him that she loves him.

Mairead has a crush on Aiden, but he doesn't realise this until she kisses him. Her mother wants answers, and Frankie has to question Aiden, who blames himself. Meanwhile, Niamh and Sean announce their engagement, and set about arranging the wedding. But Brendan is worried about his best man's speech, and Sean seems to be having second thoughts. Even Niamh is unsure: everything and everyone she knows are here in Ballykissangel, but she would rather leave and be with Sean. Liam and Donal, in a desperate attempt to find money for a wedding present, end up in the bookies. To their surprise they are lucky with the horses and before long they have raised the sum of two thousand pounds. An old man, who has been watching them proposes a game of cards. They play 'higher or lower' with the old man and have soon bet away all their money. That night, as they sit despondently at the bar of Fitzgerald's, Paul produces a parcel 'some old man' left for them. They open it to find a cut glass ornament

It is the day before Niamh and Sean's Wedding and the men of the village are desperate for him to have a stag night. Sean isn't too excited about the prospect of a night around the bar in Fitzgerald's, so Uncle Minto suggest a Celtic ceremony instead. Sean agrees, and while Minto begins to consecrate the land for the celebration, Liam and Donal are plotting how they can turn this into a more conventional stag night involving alcohol. Meanwhile, the women are going on a pub crawl. When Sean arrives in the woods, and sees the party split, he insists that the men unite. Most of the men try Minto's potion and begin to notice strange things happening. Brendan is cured of a toothache, while Danny keeps seeing Rabbits! Later, Brian learns from Sean of the plans to move away from Ballykissangel. In Cilldargen, the woman, even Kathleen, are getting thoroughly inebriated. Siobhan is run off the road by a rogue driver. Frankie is called to investigate and asks Aidan to assist.