The story follows Grant McKay, an ex-member of the Anarchist Order of Scientists, and his team and family as they are thrown through dimensions as they try to repair his dimensional device, "the Pillar", created by forbidden, unethical means – the eponymous "Black Science".

Via the Pillar, McKay and his fellow "Dimensionauts" were able to leap between worlds to find technological and medical advances for their own, but a member of Grant's team sabotages the pillar, causing it to jump to random locations at random times in increasingly lethal and hostile dimensions, forcing the team to try to return to their own dimension before they are killed by numerous hazards, ranging from parasitic fungi, nihilistic dimensional conquerors, and alternate versions of themselves.

[2] Grant McKay, former member of The Anarchistic Order of Scientists, has finally done the impossible: He has deciphered Black Science and punched through the barriers of reality.

Pierce into each and you discover a new dimension, one based an infinite variety of choices made by everyone everywhere.

Now Grant and his team are lost; living ghosts shipwrecked on an infinite ocean of alien worlds, barreling through the long-forgotten, ancient, and unimaginable dark realms.