 Tom Ripley - cool, urbane, wealthy, and murderous - lives in a villa in the Veneto with Terry, his harpsichord-playing girlfriend. A former business associate from Berlin s underworld pays a call asking Ripley s help in killing a rival. Ripley - ever a student of human nature - initiates a game to turn a mild and innocent local picture framer into a hit man. The artisan, Jonathan Trevanny, who s dying of cancer, has a wife, young son, and little to leave them. If Ripley draws Jonathan into the game, can Ripley maintain control? Does it stop at one killing? What if Ripley develops a conscience? Terry prepares for her concert.