Roy Freitag returns to Waldau after years of shady dealings abroad. Hearing a roar from his home, Jonas and Greta warn he must be holding a lion, but their fathers, mayor Vinzenz Grieshaber, who eagerly welcomes another businessman, and vet Dirk, who is shown only inanimate items and a jungle sounds CD, aren't easily convinced. Mother Hansen agreed unilaterally to invite her just-fired junior sister architect Nelly Spieker to move in 'for now' with her daughter Celine.

Carpenter Tomasz Kulka's pre-teen son Pawel 'Pavo' is caught 'tresspassing' and angling in a local brook by Nelly, but they bond, also over her dog dog Cookie. The kids help search for a missing pooch, who is found, having been accidentally run off the road in the dark by Thmoasz's truck. After she takes the blame for the 'poaching', Tomasz is also grateful for helping his rascal Pavo and rewards the family with a handcrafted doghouse.

Only Pawel and her klutzy nerd class neighbor Gustav Ott truly welcome Susanne's fresh daughter Nelly, bully Ben Armbruster joins the hostile fashionista gang. Having spotted an owl which was probably chased from the Hansen house during its makeover, team Pawel remodels a rundown cabin, but Ben's gang seizes it at night, only to face an angry, scary-looking bird of prey.

All the kids are invited in Werner Elsässer's grand villa for the lavish birthday party he throws for his spoiled daughter. The fashionable shiatsu she gets as gift but can't appreciate is rapidly handed to a younger girl, nobody notices it's utterly neglected. When it's found missing, baseless accusations follow quickly, yet Pawel, Nelly and Cookie spare no effort to search for the truth, even if that means betraying their secret tree house, which the land owner fortunately commends them for fixing on their own. The truth prevails.

A South-American bird spider (tarantula) arrived in a fruit crate in Germany, notably with Bertie's healthy desert bananas. Once it's spotted in town, panic spreads over Walldau while the creepy critter sneakily creeps around, hiding even in the vet's car. Hansen has a hard time assuring locals it's not really dangerous for humans, yet in the end a child's hand is all it takes, none of the mobilized hunters pack.

The Hansens get a prestigious, wealthy client: Waldau's major estate owner, Frau von Werther, brings I her beloved cat Nefertiti, after having poor Pawel fired as paperboy because the latest edition landed on the pillow-kept feline, waving Nelly's plea to reconsider. Shortly after, a masked intruder kidnaps the cat and demands 30.000 Euros ransom. Just then cousin Ariadne arrives, who advises to disregard the kids as suspect and simply pay up, but the ransom pickup is messed-up as they wrongly suspect the driver, who only came to keep an eye after he and the gardener ...

Dr. Philip Hansen's surgery rapidly empties as his patients rush to the new 'animal healer' Edward Schellenberg, whose qualifications fit his sub-standard methods but whose suave way with customers lures them all, so Philip is tempted to accept an offer to run his Hamburg mentor's practice, which would require moving back. Pawel and Pauline find out and expose the quack's lethal trick.

Mayor Vinzenz Grieshaber instructs Pawel's pa Tomasz Kulka to repair the cattle fence just over the border with grumpy neighbor farmer Mertz. Despite the Kulkas' due warning, he also jumps at the offer by Japanese outsider Nakamoto to buy his wagyu, the world's by far most expensive beef bovine, and accommodate it royally. Dr. Philip Hansen's mandatory veterinary examination however is tragic.

Vet Dr. Philip Hansen is tempted to move back to Hamburg, just now his family is settled in Waldau, to succeed his mentor as clinic boss, and professor Jasper Lüders even pays him a surprise visit to personally plead the post. Meanwhile chickens are killed by a wild fox, so farmers and kids start searching/ hunting, yet Pawel's gang sides with the vixen after finding her lair with cubs.

Employer Vinzenz Grieshaber, Pawel and his sister are dismayed when his father Tomasz Kulka barely agrees finishing some urgent pigsty chores before returning to Poland indefinitely to help Pawel's maternal grandparents after a fall. Pawel thinks up an alternative: earning money by training a truffle pig with Gustav's help but warned by the gamekeeper, even the admiring vet Dr. Philip Hansen must warn the knave for practical and legal problems.

Raimund Singer arrives in town with his daughter Liz, her new stepmother Yasmin and an Italian stray dog, Pinocchio, which soon goes missing. Pawel's gang, must find out how it got in the shack of a contractor on mayor Vinzenz Grieshaber's land, bravely aided by veterinary assistant Bertie Heckenbichler, who goes undercover as 'logging applicant', while Dr. Philip Hansen worries about the non-vaccinated animal. The result determines who deserves to keep the canine, which proves relevant for brat custody too.

Pawel's gang gets assistant vet Bertie Heckenbichler to help them, behind Dr. Hansens's back, to treat a neglected donkey who is bitten by the horses he's having to share a meadow with, but doc covers them. While the kids audition for the school play, mayor Vinzenz Grieshaber's unkind policy toward families and environment inspires the women, even his bossy wife Josefine to encourage Annette Hansen to stand as first female candidate against him.

While Bertus tells Pawel's gang a spooky campfire legend, they spot a mystery sound, alas from lumberjacks hired to clear the forest track for a housing project. *The gang abducts a former champion horse from Graetz's stud farm as she considered putting it down, and Pawel transforms it into a fake unicorn to counter the logging. The tourist and media impact makes it a major factor in the mayoral elections, with Vinzenz Grieshaber behind Annette Hansen in the polls.