Enter the world of Henry Roach-Dairier: a future world where humans no longer exist. Insects, greatly enlarged and intelligent, dominate. Ants live communal lives, dedicated to each other, while roaches are materialistic and self-centered. But both species are chemically dependent on plastic, mined from the ruins of the extinct Dou Pods, and the most valuable resource in the insect world. Henry, son of a roach adopted by ants, tries to bridge the canyon of differences between these vying ideologies and cultures.
In To Build A Tunnel, the first book of the trilogy, Henry narrates the story of his great-grandfather, and ant who, along with two other ants, was tricked by roaches into building better tunnels in Roacherian plastic mines. The ant colony realizes too late that its members have been forced into slavery. They would prefer to solve the issue diplomatically, but are prepared for war.