New York, late 1950s: The ambitious but penniless Tom Ripley scrapes by as best he can with odd jobs and petty scams. While working as a pianist, he is mistaken for a Princeton graduate by the wealthy businessman Herbert Greenleaf. Believing Tom to be a former classmate of his son Richard - known as Dickie - Greenleaf offers him a lucrative assignment: He is to persuade Dickie, who is enjoying the good life in Italy at his father's expense, to return to the U.S. Tom accepts the offer. In Monticello, he has no trouble tracking down Dickie and befriending him. Together with Dickie's girlfriend Marge, the men soon enjoy several carefree weeks. Marge, who is fed up with her lover's sexual escapades, also quickly comes to trust Tom, while he finds himself increasingly drawn to the capricious Dickie. When Freddie Miles, an old friend of Dickie's, joins them in Rome, tensions begin to arise between Tom and Dickie, eventually culminating in a heated argument during a boat trip. In the course of the altercation, Tom kills Dickie. He then covers his tracks and decides to assume the murdered man's identity. This marks the beginning of a risky all-or-nothing gamble for him.