Season 1

Tangle revolves around the intertwined lives of the Kovac and Williams families and their network of friends and extended family in and around Kew in Melbourne. Nat Manning (Kat Stewart) returned to her home town of Melbourne after ten years in the United Kingdom on the minor celebrity circuit. She created ripples and then waves in the lives of two clans already struggling under the weight of their myriad secrets. Ally (Justine Clarke) is the devoted wife of an aggressive and arrogant builder Vince (Ben Mendelsohn), mother of Romeo and Gigi (Lincoln Younes and Eva Lazarro), who is happy to have her sister Nat back. Politician Tim (Joel Tobeck), now a rising star in the State Parliament of Victoria, had an affair 15 years ago with Nat, and as a result, Nat became pregnant and gave birth to Max, now 15. Tim and his wife Christine (Catherine McClements) patched up their marriage and successfully fought for custody of Max (Blake Davis) and do not welcome her return to their lives. Meanwhile Ally’s husband Vince is having a torrid affair with divorcee Em, and his friend, a doctor Gabriel (Matt Day) has a secret lust for Ally. Gigi finally informs her mum Ally of Vince's affair, which had become an open secret due to numerous slipups by Vince. Ally confronts Vince in the Windsor Hotel. Vince tries to patch up his relationship with his family. A major property deal on a hospital site had been scuppered by Tim, and he had lost his friendship with Gabriel after the latter declared his love for Ally. Vince is unexpectedly killed in a random auto accident at the end of the series, leaving a cliffhanger.

Meanwhile, the older children, who all attend the same school in Melbourne's affluent Eastern Suburbs, are bound together when Max finds the dead body of a runner, who we see stumbling off the road at Yarra Bend in Melbourne and fatally hitting his head. Rather than report the death to the police, Max texts a photo to his friends, and they take the man's wallet and keys. Romeo and his friend, also the son of a state politician, cut off one of the man's fingers as a trophy, and Romeo hides it. His little sister finds it, informs on her brother, thus implicating the parents in the coverup. The friends, egged on mainly by Romeo, locate and visit his house (where he lived alone) over several nights, until they are found there by the police and heavily questioned and cautioned. A scandal is not what parent Tim needs, as he becomes a prominent public figure as State Minister for Health (he displaces a predecessor and terminally ill friend Pat, who commits suicide). The teenagers suffer less major setbacks in the second half of the series, which focuses on Max's growing relationship with his mother, Nat, the discovery of teen sex and young love, and how to deal with their parents whose lives are falling apart.

Season 2

With Vince now gone, Vince’s secretive brother Joe Kovac (Kick Gurry) returns hoping to become a part of a family he was never allowed into. Spiros Georgiades (Don Hany) is recruited by the party as a political adviser to Tim, and develops an attraction to Christine. Tim makes a bid for the top job of Premier, but is kicked out of the party after an honest press conference. Ally and her children, Romeo and Gigi, make a fresh start in a new house. Nat meets a young, successful man and Gabriel's new outgoing girlfriend Sophie looks a lot like Ally (according to Nat).

Season 3

Ally sheds some of love's illusions and begins to see life possibilities beyond her family and Gabriel. Both Romeo and Gigi need her less than she'd imagined, but in different ways, as they build their own lives. When Max moves away, Christine flirts with a parallel life at odds with all previous certainties. Gabriel and Ally finally get together as Nat reconnects with the sinister Michael Chubbievsky, a suspected drug dealer. Nat's chaos is the one constant.^[5]

Main cast

Supporting cast

• Tony Rickards – Billy Hall
• Jane Allsop – Tanya Hicks
• Lucia Emmerichs – Ophelia Hicks
• Reef Ireland – Ned Dougherty
• Madeleine Jay – Kelly
• Alison Whyte – Nicky Barnham
• Maude Davey – Agatha

Notable guest cast

• Luke Hemsworth – John (2 episodes, 2009)
• Kate Jenkinson – Melanie (5 episodes, 2009–12)
• Lliam Amor – Robert Barker (2 episodes, 2009)
• Tony Nikolakopoulos – Gordon (3 episodes, 2009–10)
• Richard Sutherland – Jason (1 episode, 2009)
• Marta Kaczmarek – Psychic (1 episode, 2010)
• Alin Sumarwata – Julie (1 episode, 2010)
• Kevin Harrington – Ian (1 episode, 2012)
• John Flaus – Cemetery Keeper (1 episode, 2012)
• Jason Agius - Romeo Fighter Mate (1 episode, 2012)