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Residents of an old apartment complex in Vancouver's west end interact with the superintendent and the owners of the adjoining grocery store, their lives narrated through songs.

All around geek, Fred Fochs, has been cyber-corresponding for three months with a woman named Kelly, who lives in Newfoundland. For both, it is a long distance girlfriend/boyfriend relationship. Luckily for both, they still consider it so after their first encounter via webcam. Kelly has decided to come to Vancouver to go to school and wants to stay with Fred, at least initially until she can find her own place. Fred is initially excited about this, until he realizes that some of his quirks may be off-putting to her in person. Chief amongst these are his brain, which he keeps in a jar. It is not a real brain - it was a movie prop - but it is a brain nonetheless. After much consideration, Fred decides to let Kelly stay with him but hide the brain. Upon arrival, Kelly finds that she likes Fred even more than she thought, even after she does stumble upon the brain which she did indeed find slightly off-putting. On the flip side, Fred is attracted to Kelly physically and attracted to the fact that she is attracted to him, but there are certain little things which annoy him about her, including that she's clumsy, has a continually runny nose, and has a laugh like a mule. Although they're having a mostly good time together, Fred unleashes his true thoughts about her annoying habits during an unguarded moment. Hurt, Kelly decides to leave despite Fred's apologies.

The boiler in the building is on the fritz which is causing a heatwave throughout the complex. The heat is also turning up on Wayne's lies. He can no longer tell if what's coming out of his mouth is the truth or a lie. It isn't until Dawn, his wife, serves him divorce papers that Wayne thinks perhaps he should stop his lying. Dawn left Wayne because of his lies, and has been working in the oil patch in Fort McMurray. Her company is sending her all expenses paid to Saudi Arabia to work and she feels this as good a time as any to break ties with Wayne. Wayne still loves Dawn and decides to go to a Liars Anonymous meeting in hopes of winning Dawn back. Initially, he lies while at the meeting, but finally turns his whole life into one big truth, which he ends up doing more for himself than to win Dawn back. Despite a few bumps in the road, including the death of his plants since they thrived on the joyousness of his lies and a beating by a Colin James wannabe, Wayne does win Dawn back with his transformation, although she too admits the truth that she really is scared about the move to Saudi Arabia. However, Hal convinces Wayne that Dawn really needs to get on with her life in Saudi Arabia without him. She ultimately comes to the realization that she no longer loves Wayne but was only staying because she was scared. Meanwhile, Bobby continues his affair with Sasha, which is witnessed by Yuri and Hal's skunk, with which Bobby has a close encounter of the bad kind.

Yuri's older alcoholic brother Val stops by. Although Yuri tries to persuade him to leave and stay somewhere else, Val manages to worm his way in. Yuri has mixed feelings about Val: he loves his older brother, knows he's trouble but feels somewhat responsible for him as Val took care of Yuri when they were little kids. Their mother was taken away when Yuri was four years old, right after World War II, because of her association with Mussolini. Val is currently selling illegal fireworks to neighborhood kids to make ends meet. A motherless for the time being and head-braceless Georgia becomes the center of attention for both Yuri and Val. Finally exasperated with Val's antics and drunkenness including Val's admission to Yuri about what really happened to their mother, Yuri turns him into the cops who came looking for Val earlier on. Yuri thinks that in doing so, he is helping his brother. However the cops aren't looking for Val for the reason Yuri thought, but he ended up helping his brother more than he realized when he called Constable Birnham. It's Georgia who ends up bringing the brothers together, at least for the time being.

Hal's life is getting even slower as his unemployment insurance has run out and he has nothing to do and no money on which to live. Nick is frustrated with Hal being such a slacker. This coincides with Nick meeting a new friend in the building by the name of Wayne Ross. Hal openly dislikes Wayne, partly out of jealousy. Hal confides in Alicia who thinks perhaps Nick is going through a crisis of some sort in his life, but also thinks that his and Nick's issues are a manifestation of Hal's slacker attitude. As such, Hal decides to turn his life around. It ends up not being as easy as he thought. But Nick eventually finding out that Wayne isn't everything he professes to be and Hal's close encounter with the apartment skunk brings Hal and Nick's life full circle, but better as Hal decides to go back to school to get certified in urban wildlife management. Meanwhile, Stu has hired a new building manager, Elvis Michalowsk, who becomes the bane of Yuri's existence.

After Sault has an anxiety attack at work, she confesses to Geoff, her confidante, that she hates her life. She needs a man in her life and decides once again to pursue - stalks, really - Nick, despite not knowing if he really is the one for her. She uses the same techniques that Geoff originally used to pursue Stanley. Sault and Nick do reconnect - for Sault, it may be the start of something nice, but for Nick, Sault is just, as Hal coins, "the just for sex girl". When Sault finds out this is how Nick thinks of her, she literally chases him down. They both have a turbulent admission that they perhaps should break up, but not before one last sexual go at it in the park. But things look up for Sault when she and her job, the cause of much stress in her life, mutually part company.

When Andrew Colton moves into the building, Geoff and Stanley's gaydar immediately goes off. Even Yuri is confused about his own sexuality when he admires Andrew's butt before he realizes that the butt belongs to a man. When Andrew mentions his partner "Chris" to Geoff, Geoff assumes that Chris is a man. However much to Geoff's surprise and somewhat dismay, Chris ends up being a woman. Because of Geoff's interest in Andrew, Stanley throws out one coy gay reference after another to Andrew. Geoff, on the other hand, is angry and confused about what he sees as Andrew's denial of who he is as a person, and during a moment of drunkenness and out of lust, Geoff tries to kiss Andrew. Andrew is taken aback and angry by Geoff's move. Geoff's attempted kiss coincides with continuing problems between himself and Stanley, primarily surrounding the imbalance in their relationship around money and its associated power. Although Geoff tries to bury the hatchet between himself and Andrew, Andrew is still angry. Andrew neither confirms or denies his sexual orientation, but just states that having a family has been his priority in life for as long as he can remember.

Bobbi, always tired - one of the classic signs of depression - is concerned that Robbie looks jaundiced. She has to deal with him on her own since Bobby is away on another business trip, this time to Portland, where, unbeknownst to Bobbi, he is continuing his affair with co-worker, Sasha. When Bobbi calls Bobby for advice, he convinces her to take Robbie to the doctor, but he also wants her to go see a doctor herself regarding her depression, the latter which she refuses. But Dr. Singh, Robbie's doctor, has two diagnoses: Robbie is fine, but Bobbi is depressed and she prescribes a mild antidepressant to a pill-phobic Bobbi, who promptly pops one anyway when the stress of life becomes too much. When Bobbi calls Bobby in the middle of the night, Sasha answers the phone. Although Bobby calls back with a somewhat plausible explanation, Bobbi, distraught since she knows Bobby is lying, turns to Rob, the refrigerator repairman, for advice, support and comfort not only about Bobby's infidelity but about her self-assessment as being a bad mother. Rob, in turn, offers an unusually sympathetic ear. In the morning, Bobbi realizes that Rob's advice was her own dream induced thoughts. She finally knows what she has to do and throws Bobby out. Meanwhile, the identity of Robbie's biological father is implied by his Texas shaped birthmark. And Robson Arms gets a new owner.

Andrew wants to have a baby, and wants to make the process as scientific as possible for conception. This direction is different than what he and Chris had previously discussed, which was to have a baby whenever it naturally happened. Amongst their baby talk, Andrew tells Chris about the fact that Geoff tried to kiss him. Initially, rather than be upset, Chris is humoured and flattered for Andrew. However, when more and more indirect signs of gay men being attracted to Andrew surface, including warnings from Chris' overbearing mother Dianne, Chris begins to think that perhaps her nonchalant attitude toward Geoff's kiss is misplaced and that Andrew's want for a baby but otherwise recent standoffishness is really a sign that Andrew is gay. She decides first to confront Geoff, but only finds Stanley, who provides a little insight into the gay male psyche in relationship to Chris and Andrew's marriage. Despite Stanley's assurances to Chris, Andrew, upon probing by Chris, admits to her that he does sometimes think about men sexually, but denies being gay since he has never acted on those thoughts. Confused, Chris turns to her mother Dianne for more advice, who tells Chris that she should have the baby as security to hang on to Andrew. Chris ultimately decides and tells Andrew that now is not the time to have a baby. Although Andrew says that she alone without a baby is enough to fulfill his life, Chris still has doubts about his true feelings.

Both Yuri and Toni are facing new nemeses. Yuri's is contractor and television personality Jim Caruk, who Elvis has hired to fix up the building since Stu has a prospective buyer. In essence, Jim is doing Yuri's job. Yuri realizes that his livelihood at Robson Arms is in jeopardy, especially when Elvis gives Jim a set of master keys to the building. Toni faces two nemeses: menopause and Bao's pretty young third cousin Kitty Chong, just arrived from Kowloon, Hong Kong. Initially seemingly sweet, innocent and naive, Kitty tells a heartbreaking story of a recently killed loving fiancé. She is adored by all, especially the men of the building, with whom Kitty uses her sexuality to get whatever she wants. This includes some sexual favours for Elvis, who is threatening to triple the store's rent once the lease expires. Grandma, who has never trusted the Chong side of the family, is the first to see through Kitty's charade. Toni eventually sees the real manipulative side of Kitty, who wants to steal everything that Toni has. Based on advice from Yuri, who will resort to down and dirty tactics to save his job, Toni gets the upper hand on Kitty when Toni discovers Kitty's real background, which includes a still living fiancé from whom Kitty embezzled money; and Kitty's ultimate goal of getting Bao and Toni to sign her immigration documents to move to Canada. Ultimately, Kitty is sent packing back to Kowloon, but not before she gets Elvis to renew the store's lease at the same rate.

It was a dark and stormy night, which brings with it dark and stormy Georgia or "Georgie", Carol's estranged head-brace wearing teen-aged daughter, on Carol's doorstep. Although Carol has been fairly open about her life with her neighbors, Georgie exposes more of that life: that Carol just returned from India where she spent eighteen months in an ashram trying to find herself, this following the divorce from Georgie's father Manny. Georgie, wanting to stay with her Mom for a few weeks, decides to wreak havoc at Robson Arms as material for her on-line videos: she puts red dye in the washing machines, lets Hal's skunk loose in the building and invites Brent the bum over for dinner. Carol loves her daughter but also finds her exasperating. The last straw for Carol is when Georgie plans to film her own deflowering. This act reveals the reason for Georgie's bad behavior: she feels she is the reason for all her parent's problems and feels she was an accident in their lives. Carol endures an accident of her own after she finally convinces Georgie that she really is the best thing in her life and is proud to be her mother.

It's six weeks away until Bobbi and Bobby have their baby, and there is some underlying and unspoken tension between the two. Bobbi is putting increasing pressure on the household by wanting everything to be perfect - she wants everything to be new despite the cost and is paranoid about everything that may negatively affect the pregnancy. This is proving to be a little too much pressure for Bobby, who still has doubts that the baby is his. He manifests his stress by starting to flirt with co-worker Sasha, a self-professed slut; she reciprocates the flirting. As Bobby's stress increases, the flirting progresses to "second base". Finally Bobby confronts Bobbi with his feelings. This statement leads to a clearing of the air between the two, including their hopes, fears and Bobby's admission of his dalliance with Sasha. However, that still doesn't stop Bobby from being literally caught with his pants down just as Bobbi's water breaks. Meanwhile, Yuri is on the hunt for a skunk tenants have told him has been stalking the building.

Much is happening at Robson Arms in the aftermath of the earthquake. Janice and Tom have moved in together and out of the building. Stu, managing the building following the death of his cousins Bea and Pauline, is trying to sell, and in turn is working Yuri to the bone trying to repair all the earthquake damage. And ex-Toronto Maple Leaf, Caldo Vasco, is learning to maneuver in the building in his wheelchair. A recent drunk driver accident has turned him into a paraplegic. Caldo and Yuri are at each other's throats, Caldo because he has never liked the way Yuri has treated him (which is no different than the way Yuri's treated everyone else in the building), and Yuri because he is taking all the flak for Caldo's lascivious acts. Caldo has been milking his new wheelchair-bound status for all it's worth, and no one except Yuri knows that Caldo was the drunk driver causing the accident, which resulted in a dog being run over and killed. Despite making a deal with Caldo, Yuri eventually spills the beans to the rest of the tenants about Caldo's accident. Their feud comes to a head when they are caught fighting in front of a television news crew, the crew at Robson Arms solely as a marketing ploy for Stu to sell the building. Caldo and Yuri come to a new understanding of each other after their physical encounter and bond against a common foe.

Sault has fallen on hard times since she lost her job. While she waits to hear about money for a proposal she submitted for a business venture, she is forced to take a temp job at Strategic Consolidated to make ends meet, despite that it is a mindless job for a mindless company. There she meets Perry Sound, a graphic novelist who is working at Strategic Consolidated just to earn a living. In many respects, he is a male version of Sault: cynical, brash, and someone who takes the easy way in life. As an example, he eats tuna and coffee sandwiches for lunch to give himself bad breath so that people at the office won't talk to and therefore bother him. Sault and Perry are sympatico in almost every respect, and they quickly end up as a twosome in their personal lives. She even feels comfortable enough to tell him about her alopecia, which he thinks is sexy. When she finds out that her proposal was rejected, Perry talks her into working permanently at the mindless factory called Strategic Consolidated. Geoff doesn't like the fact that in doing so, Sault would give up on her work dreams. Even Stanley, who still doesn't like Sault, thinks she is selling out. Eventually, Sault thinks that another "her" in the form of Perry is too much of a good thing, and decides that she really does need some work, and as a result personal happiness in her life and leaves Perry and Consolidated. Perhaps she can find the Mary Tyler Moore "Mary Richards" brand of happiness.

After Carlisle passes away alone in his apartment and isn't discovered until after a week, loner geek Fred decides that he should get out more before he befalls the same fate as Carlisle. He tries speed dating, but to no avail. But then he attaches himself emotionally to Carol Goldstein, a self-professed forty-five year old constantly horny woman who has moved into Carlisle's suite. Carol wants to get to know her neighbours, but soon finds out that perhaps her initial friendliness with all the tenants was not a good idea as Fred will not take her subtle hints to leave her alone. Finally she tells him directly to get lost as he and she really aren't even compatible as friends. This perhaps was the impetus he needed to meet the person best suited to him. He meets Alicia, who was probably Carlisle's closest friend in the building and who had been leaving memorials for Carlisle at Carol's apartment door. Computer assistance for Alicia and a common love for the original Battaglie nella galassia (1978) is the start of Fred's first true friendship in the building.