Set in the 1980s, the novel centers on the sudden and powerful romance that blossoms between student Elio Perlman and visiting American scholar Oliver, chronicling their relationship and the 20 years that follow.

Each summer, his parents would take in a doctoral student as a house guest for six weeks, who would revise a book manuscript while assisting his father with academic paperwork.

Eventually Elio confesses his attraction to Oliver, and they kiss on a berm where Claude Monet had supposedly painted some of his pictures.

After going days without speaking, seeking reconciliation, Oliver slips a note under Elio’s bedroom door, with a plan to meet at midnight.

Oliver admits that he has followed Elio's academic career, and shows him a postcard that he brought with him when he left Italy and has kept over the years.

During a final meeting at a bar, Elio and Oliver muse that people can lead two parallel lives—one in reality, and one a fantasy that is denied to them by external forces.

[7] In The Washington Post, Charles Kaiser said, "If you have ever been the willing victim of obsessive love—a force greater than yourself that pulls you inextricably toward the object of your desire—you will recognize every nuance of André Aciman's superb new novel, Call Me by Your Name.

[13] At the 90th Academy Awards, it was nominated for Best Picture, Best Actor (Chalamet), Best Original Song ("Mystery of Love" by Sufjan Stevens), and Best Adapted Screenplay (James Ivory), winning the latter.

[14][15] Other roles were played by Amira Casar as Elio`s mother, Esther Garrel as Marzia, Victoire Du Bois as Chiara and others.