It is early spring. Ani Fanelli is a successful twenty-something relationship columnist for The Women’s Magazine who publishes under the name TifAni FaNelli. She attends to wedding preparations for her fall ceremony. Her fiancé is the strapping Luke Harrison, an up-and-coming financial adviser on Wall Street and a scion of a wealthy Philadelphia family. Ani herself is unsure about getting married: “The word fiancé didn’t bother [her] so much as the one that came after it. Husband” (2). She tries to focus on plans, selecting invitations, choosing floral arrangements, making guest lists, and meeting with caterers. The wedding, given Luke’s family, will be extravagant.

Privately, Ani (she pronounces it “Ahh-nee”) struggles with her wedding. She fantasizes about stabbing Luke with one of the ornate knives they are shown for cutting the wedding cake. She is determined to lose 15 pounds before the wedding. She yo-yo diets, gorging herself on food in between grueling workout sessions and boring three-mile runs. She wonders what Luke sees in her. She is pretty, but she has to work at it. She only recently revealed to him that that she is an insomniac, preferring to sleep when everyone else waking up: “when I can hear Luke puttering around the kitchen […] everyday reminders that life is so boring it can’t possibly terrorize anyone” (5).