Abstract: Tom Ripley detests murder - unless it is absolutely necessary. Where possible, he prefers someone else to do the dirty work. Now married and living on an Italian estate, Ripley finds his complacency shaken when he is scorned at a local party. While others might repay the insult with some mild act of retribution, the game Ripley has in mind is far subtler and infinitely more sinister. When Reeves, an old associate of Ripley's, seeks out a non-professional to carry out a contract killing for him in Berlin, Ripley realises that he can kill two birds with one stone - and turns a law-abiding family man into a killer-for-hire.