Presents the first two appearances of the author's antihero, Tom Ripley, as he travels to Europe to convince a rich man's son to return home, and establishes himself on the continent with a new identity, and, twenty years later, as a seemingly respectable man married to an heiress.

The cunning schemes of a young American ne'er-do-well, who travels to Italy on an unusual assignment.

Tom Ripley is a calculating young man who believes it's better to be a fake somebody than a real nobody. He's hired to go to Italy to bring back the playboy son of a millionaire and soon is plunged into a daring scheme of duplicity, lies and murder.

After having been missing for four years and presumed dead, Travis emerges from the desert near the Texas-Mexico border and collapses at a gas station. His younger brother, Walt, a billboard artist, takes him to Walt's Los Angeles home where Travis' son, Hunter, has lived with Walt and Walt's wife, Anne, since Travis and his wife, Jane, disappeared. Travis reestablishes a relationship with Hunter, finds Jane and brings about a reunion between Jane...