Tom Ripley, the disturbing protagonist of The Talented Mr. Ripley, Ripley's Mask and The American Friend, one day meets a strange teenager who does not want to leave him: the young Frank Pierson, son of a billionaire, who feels harassed by a horrible secret. Only a man like Ripley, accustomed to murky waters, could help him in his desperate fight against the feeling of guilt that gnaws at him.

The two friends then begin a wandering that takes them from Paris to Berlin (where Frank is the victim of a kidnapping), then to Hamburg and finally to the United States, to the luxurious and disastrous Pierson mansion. There, facing his destiny, will the fragile young man be able to follow in the footsteps of Ripley, the cynic, or will he give in under the weight of his moral suffering?

For the first time, Tom Ripley reveals to the reader his hidden side: that of a generous man, willing to do anything to help someone in need. And also for the first time, Patricia Highsmith dedicates herself to reconstructing the universe of a teenager atrociously tormented by an act he committed but also rebelled against society and tremendously unhappy because of a love affair.

«A work of chilling intuition and great depth, although it does not flaunt it... Like Graham Greene, Patricia Highsmith knows that she does not need to gesture. The crowning achievement of a ceaselessly fascinating writer” (Craig Brown, Times Literary Supplement).