A BALLOON TRIP THROUGH OUTER SPACE.In the far future, space travel is ordinary and so is the life of Penelope James, a clerk living on the obscure little planet Polonic. What isn't ordinary is Penelope's friend The Professor, an energetic scientist (or mad scientist, depending on who you ask) who won't take an uninteresting universe lying down. One day The Professor explodes into Penelope's office with a new invention: a gas that is 'lighter' than the dark matter that makes up most of the Universe. When The Professor intends to build a hot air balloon to travel upwards in space and find the universe's summit, Penelope decides that the idea is just impossible enough to be interesting. Accompanied by The Professor's long-suffering bodyguard Selena Delgado, the three women travel upwards in the space-time continuum, encounter the strange marvels that hang over humanity's understanding of existence, and make their way to something that shouldn't exist: The Top of the Universe.
