The following version of this book was used to create the guide: Summers, Chelsea G. A Certain Hunger. Unnamed Press, 2020.

Chelsea G. Summers' novel A Certain Hunger is written from the first person point of view of the protagonist Dorothy Daniels. Because the narrative toggles between the past and present throughout, the author deploys multiple tenses while deforming conventional notions of the linear plot line. For the sake of clarity, the following summary relies upon a more streamlined mode of explanation and the present tense.

Dorothy Daniels grows up in Connecticut with her mother, father, brother, and sister. Although she has an idyllic home life, Dorothy cannot help wanting more. After making friends with a group of girls her age, Dorothy starts exploring and experimenting, both with food and sex. With time, she comes to associate junk food with meaningless sex.

Dorothy leaves home to attend Pennistone College. She rooms with a girl named Joanne, with whom she does not get along. Because Dorothy is self-possessed and adventurous, she finds Joanne's fragility and emotionality exhausting and dull. Throughout her time in college, Dorothy not only studies, but pursues a seemingly endless string of sexual relationships.

After college, Dorothy moves to Boston. She gets a job writing for the Boston Phoenix. One day, she sees her old roommate from afar. Using her resources at the Phoenix, Dorothy tracks down Joanne, who is now called Emma. The two meet up and kindle a close friendship. When Dorothy moves to New York City shortly after her mother passes away from lung cancer, she begs Emma to come. It takes Emma nine years to make the move.

In New York, Dorothy's sexual escapades eventually beget her career as a food critic. After she sleeps with a man named Andrew, he asks Dorothy to be the food writer at his publication Noir. Throughout her tenure with the magazine, she and Andrew continue sleeping together. They later break up when Andrew starts sleeping with Dorothy's assistant.

When Dorothy learns that Noir is on the verge of folding, she starts sleeping with the Eat & Drink magazine publisher Gil. Gil soon gives her a position at the magazine. Throughout her tenure with this publication, she and Gil maintain a sexual relationship.

One year, Dorothy's work sends her overseas to Italy. Dorothy is excited, because she hopes to renew her college romance with a butcher named Marco. In spite of their lengthy affair, Marco has no interest in rekindling their romance. Dorothy therefore becomes involved with a man named Giovanni. After accidentally hitting and killing him with her car, Dorothy cuts out his liver, brings it home, cooks it, and eats it. This marks the start of Dorothy's career as a killer.

Over the course of the years following, Dorothy murders and eats Andrew, Gil, and Marco. Each episode of violence empowers her. She gets away with these crimes because she is meticulous about her plans, her stories, and her alibis.

Then one night, Dorothy meets and sleeps with a man named Casimir at a hotel bar. They continue having sex for the following weeks. Although she has no real feeling for or against Casimir, Dorothy murders him at a Fire Island cottage one weekend.

Some months later, a Detective Wasserman contacts Dorothy. Shocked that anyone has traced her back to Casimir's death, Dorothy panics. She goes to Emma's house and the friends get drunk together. The next morning, Dorothy cannot remember if she confessed her crime to her friend or not. As the days pass, she becomes increasingly convinced that Emma is in cahoots with the police. She therefore tries to kill Emma, but the assault only gets her into more trouble. She soon goes to trial and is found guilty for murder, assault, and arson. She receives life in prison.

Throughout her time at Bedford Hills penitentiary, Dorothy has an endless expanse of time to reflect on her crimes. Instead of feeling remorseful, Dorothy tries to justify her actions by writing her memoir and telling her story in her own words.