Everything has changed since the last day Lydia saw her parents. Technology is on the fritz, the town's transport cubes are unreliable, and the mayor is waging a campaign against the Paper Museum, where Lydia has been living with her Uncle Lem, the curator, for the past three months.

It's a future where magic has been forbidden and paper has been replaced by plasticress, a product used for everything. People rely on the palm-sized projections their aer readers produce for information and entertainment. But Lydia knows the Paper Museum is someplace special. It's the only place where paper and books are reverently preserved. Soon Lydia discovers the museum is also hiding a secret. Her search for clues to her parents' disappearance leads Lydia to uncover mysterious symbols, hidden rooms, and magical elixirs. . . and triggers a countdown.

Lydia has thirty days to find her parents or she risks losing their home and the museum to the Mayor's destructive plans. Everything will be lost forever, including the secrets of the museum that hold this world together. Can Lydia find the answers in time?