Tom Ripley is a young man struggling to make a living in 1950s New York City with his "talents": telling lies, forging signatures and impersonating people. While working at a party as a piano player, he is approached by wealthy shipbuilder Herbert Greenleaf, who mistakenly believes that Ripley attended Princeton University with his son, Dickie. Greenleaf recruits Ripley, for $1,000, to travel to Italy to persuade Dickie to return home. After the voyage while collecting his luggage, Ripley strikes up a friendship with an American socialite, Meredith Logue, and pretends to be Dickie.