Dimity Rush craves change. Human Resources Manager for a debt collection agency, she's been marooned for eight years on a Kumeu lifestyle block where anaesthetist husband Stuart planned to grow olives. Now she's taking charge, dragging her family into Ponsonby, to kick-start her life and marriage. Over the fence, long-term renter Arthur Short and his two girls are struggling to cope now mum's gone and shacked up with a woman. When Arthur hears his place is on the market, and that Dimity has already poked her nose in, the battlelines are drawn.
Dimity's incensed Stuart would give up medicine just because he killed someone, while Stuart can’t believe her real estate plans jeopardize their family assets. He takes Ollie to stay at the home of playboy surgeon Spencer, leaving Dimity to seek comfort in the arms of her personal trainer. Amber Short (Hannah Tasker-Poland) swings into action when Julian's ex-girlfriend Ruby (Stephanie van der Wel) starts getting pushy for all the wrong reasons.
Dimity Rush’s lovely Ponsonby life is in jeopardy – Stuart won’t come home, and Julian steals money to support his new girlfriend, Arthur’s daughter Amber. The teenagers wreck a sale of the Kumeu lifestyle block, adding to Dimity’s financial woes. Then her home is invaded by a disgruntled former employee, but Dimity is saved by the unwanted intervention of ex-social worker Arthur, which infuriates her and does nothing for neighbourly relations. Dimity resolves to play her last card to outbid Arthur and evict him – wangling a huge company loan from her deeply admiring boss John.
Dimity is on a natural high as her notice to evict Arthur ruins his birthday. While Dim celebrates with a new Ponsonby hairdo, Constance starts to work her devious magic behind the scenes, grooming Dimity’s seven year old Ollie as a secret agent and planting him back inside his own family as a mole. And Arthur discovers just how dodgy his mate Ralph really is.
Dimity's back gives out in a tug-of-war with Arthur, and Bonnie's husband Jase (David Mackie) comforts her with a backrub. Taped by Ollie, this is dynamite in Constance's hands. Sharon Short (Marise Wipani) attempts to sort out her wayward daughter but her lover Dara (Hera Dunleavy) goes on the attack.
Dimity's financial masterplan is in tatters after their unsold Kumeu house burns down, and she's repulsed to hear that Julian's life was saved - by Arthur, her nemesis.
When Dimity gets a 24-hour ultimatum from the bank to sort out her finances or lose both Ponsonby homes, Stuart bears the full force of her sky-rocketing stress-levels. Into this fraught atmosphere comes Caroline, Dimity's old best friend and Stuart's one-time lover, now with just weeks to live, on a mission to make peace with the past. Julian, freaked out at home and desperate to win Amber back from her journalist lover, tries to move in next door with Arthur, who is forced to shatters his illusions.
Just as her finances collapse, Dimity has an epiphany inspired by her dying friend Caroline, and glimpses her future destiny. Thinking fast, she strikes a deal with Bonnie and Jase, which saves her home but binds them into a devilish contract. Meanwhile, Amber's affair with a journalist explodes when he publishes her family's secrets, alienating Amber from her mum Sharon, and Constance, who pursues a secret life as an investigator. And Arthur makes a terrible bargain to keep his family together.
Dimity discovers new ways to get compensation from Bonnie, using the loot from the sale of Bonnie's home to save her own place, while exploiting her round the clock as a slave. Dishonesty costs Constance her surveillance job with Isobel King but when she strives to win it back by completing a dangerous assignment, what she uncovers leaves her shocked and confused. And under Stuart's care Amber faces the consequences of her reckless personal life.
Dimity goes ballistic hearing that Amber carries Julian’s child. Stuart is horrified that Dimity’s book features explicit accounts of their love life. Constance, in emotional freefall after discovering that Arthur is not her dad, recovers her wits to blackmail Ralph.
The 'Rude Awakenings' series final sees Dimity's devious strategy to stop Amber having Julian's baby push Arthur past his snapping point. Constance reveals herself as a master manipulator to dish out her kind of justice to Ralph and Horse, and news of Caroline's death spurs Stuart to kick-start his life in an unexpected direction.