[Book 1 of the Taste Series] Julian White doesn't say his real name in self-introductions. Hiding behind his middle name and a pair of overly round eyeglasses, he tries to get through the tenacity of attending a competitive culinary school under his uncle's influence. Amidst his learning of crust structures and the nutritional value of bananas, he meets an old friend.

"Anna Karenina" is the tragedy of married aristocrat and socialite Anna Karenina and her affair with the affluent Count Vronsky. The story starts when she arrives in the midst of a family broken up by her brother's unbridled womanizing—something that prefigures her own later situation, though with less tolerance for her by others.