Ben's life is turned upside down when he is accused of a theft that he did not commit. While in pursuit of the real thief, Ben discovers that Werrinup is a gateway to a number of parallel universes known as the Parallax.

14-year-old Ben Johnson lives in a picturesque (if you are an adult), boring (if you are a teenager), country town of Werrinup in Western Australia. However, Ben's life is turned upside down when he is accused of a theft that he did not commit. While in pursuit of the real thief, Ben discovers that Werrinup is a gateway to a number of parallel universes known as the Parallax. As he travels through these alternate universes, Ben finds out that he has a sister, Katherine, whom he didn't know about; that his mother, Veronica, is a Guardian of the Parallax; and that huge purple insects named Welkin want to bite him and that all the worlds of the Parallax are in danger. The only hope of stopping the Welkin is to find the key to the Reading Room. They are the last line of defence. So they stand, bickering siblings, ready to face the foe armed... with a library card.—GusF

Ben and Katherine find friends and allies in other parallel universes. Mundi, for example comes from a world where the natural environment is respected and her community live in high tech houses built high in the trees. Technology and consumerism is triumphant in another Werrinup where the town and its river are part of a modern High-Tech suburb of a major city. It is mainly fun as the kids explore the worlds of the Parallax until they find a world that is a desolate ruin. It is then that they realise that there is a threat in the Parallax that is both dangerous and very close. They discover that the information they need to save their worlds may be held in the Reading Room the Guardians' repository of all the knowledge from all the worlds in the Parallax. The problem is that the Guardians can no longer gain access to the Reading Room. When their mother disappears, Ben and Katherine embark on a quest to find both her and the missing key to the Reading Room.