In the Green Kingdom, stimulation through the sense of taste has become a powerful and complex art form that rules the lives of the males--the phrils. Not only does it bring pleasure, it can change a phril's destiny, even guiding him into death and beyond if he can afford the services of the artists called Recipears.

Without a Recipear, a phril will live and die with no chance of an afterlife. Carrying the soul of his Recipearium master, within him, Morminiu comes to the Green Court in the city within the huge body of a monstrous beast, the Royal Carami. His two objectives--to exact revenge on his master's enemies, and to win for himself the most desired and treacherous position in the realm: Master Recipear of the Kingdom. Yet he doesn't know that his master's enemies are so many and so powerful, and the compromises he has to make for his ambition.