The Talented Mr. Ripley recap

Tom Ripley is sent to Italy by Herbert Greenleaf to persuade Herbert's son Dickie to return home. Tom instead becomes captivated by Dickie's privileged life in Mongibello. When Dickie tires of him, Tom kills him during a boat trip, hides the body, and uses his skill at imitation to live as Dickie while also managing appearances as himself. Freddie Miles discovers enough to become dangerous, so Tom kills him too. Police scrutiny forces Tom to abandon Dickie's identity, and he creates a story in which Dickie murdered Freddie and then disappeared or died by suicide. Marge Sherwood suspects Tom, but neither the police nor a private investigator proves the truth. Dickie's will names Tom as heir; the Greenleaf family accepts it, leaving Tom wealthy and unpunished as he travels to Greece.

Tom Ripley is living uneasily in New York, avoiding responsibility and amusing himself with minor frauds, when Herbert Greenleaf approaches him. Herbert wrongly believes Tom knows his son Dickie well and offers to pay Tom's expenses to Italy if he will persuade Dickie to return to America and join the family shipbuilding business. Tom accepts, studies Dickie's background, acquires suitable clothes, and presents himself to the Greenleafs as a respectable young man with useful influence. The journey gives him a chance to leave his precarious life and become the person his patrons expect. Arriving in Italy, he travels toward Mongibello, where Dickie lives, already rehearsing the friendship and social confidence he hopes to establish.

Tom finds Dickie Greenleaf living comfortably in Mongibello, painting, sailing, and spending time with the American writer Marge Sherwood. He gains Dickie's attention by invoking their supposed connection and gradually becomes a regular companion. Herbert's real purpose matters less to Tom than entry into Dickie's life. He studies Dickie's voice, gestures, clothes, and possessions and enjoys privately imitating him. Marge distrusts Tom's dependence and resents the time Dickie gives him. Dickie initially enjoys Tom's company but grows uncomfortable with his intensity, while Tom becomes jealous of anyone who can displace him and increasingly fearful that the welcome on which his new identity depends will be withdrawn.

Dickie's interest in Tom cools, and the arrival of his wealthy friend Freddie Miles emphasizes that Tom remains an outsider. During a trip with Dickie to San Remo, Tom realizes that he is about to be dismissed from the life he covets. On a rented boat he kills Dickie, disposes of his body, and sinks the boat. Because the two men resemble each other and Tom has studied Dickie closely, Tom begins impersonating him. He writes letters in Dickie's voice, moves money, uses Dickie's clothes and identification, and arranges sightings and correspondence so that both Dickie and Tom appear to remain alive in different places. What began as social mimicry becomes a sustained attempt to take possession of Dickie's freedom and income.

Living in Rome as Dickie, Tom manages bank accounts and letters while occasionally reappearing as himself to protect the fiction that both men are traveling separately. Freddie Miles comes looking for Dickie and notices contradictions in Tom's presence and behavior. When Freddie recognizes that something is wrong, Tom kills him in the apartment and disposes of the body. The death brings the Italian police directly into the web of false identities. Investigators connect Freddie's last movements with Dickie, while the discovery of the abandoned boat renews interest in Dickie's disappearance. Tom continues forging messages and altering his appearance, but press attention and police questions make it harder to sustain Dickie's identity without being seen simultaneously as Tom.

Tom gives up appearing as Dickie and resumes his own identity, using letters and planted evidence to turn suspicion toward the absent man. He encourages the conclusion that Dickie killed Freddie and then either fled or killed himself. Marge, grieving and increasingly distrustful of Tom, continues asking what happened between the two men. Tom travels through Italy and spends time with Peter Smith-Kingsley, enjoying a calmer companionship while remaining ready to escape. Police interviews and newspaper reports repeatedly threaten his construction, but his ability to anticipate what others expect allows him to answer questions without a decisive contradiction.

Herbert Greenleaf and private investigator Alvin McCarron examine Dickie's disappearance. Marge finds Dickie's rings among Tom's possessions and suspects that Tom knows more than he admits, but he explains their presence as part of Dickie's preparations before vanishing. The account of Dickie as Freddie's killer who then died by suicide remains more acceptable to the investigators than the truth of Tom's impersonation. A will in Dickie's hand leaves his property to Tom. Tom travels to Greece convinced that close inspection of the will or the financial trail may expose him. Instead, he learns that the Greenleaf family accepts the document and will not challenge his inheritance. He arrives in Crete with Dickie's wealth, having escaped legal consequences for both murders, though his fear of discovery continues beneath his new security.

Tom abandons his impersonation of Dickie and arranges the evidence to suggest that Dickie killed Freddie Miles and then took his own life. Marge remains suspicious, especially after finding Dickie's rings among Tom's belongings, but Tom supplies explanations and preserves the story through questioning by the police, Herbert Greenleaf, and private investigator Alvin McCarron. A will written by Dickie leaves his property to Tom. Tom expects the document to become the final clue that exposes him, yet the Greenleaf family accepts it as genuine and does not contest the inheritance. Traveling onward to Greece, he learns that the danger he feared has passed and that Dickie's income will be his. He reaches Crete wealthy and free, though still alert to every policeman and message as a possible sign that his crimes have caught up with him.