He spends his days living comfortably at his estate, Belle Ombre, until an associate, American criminal Reeves Minot, asks him to commit murder for him.

The previous month, Ripley had gone to a party in Fontainebleau, where he was insulted by the host, Jonathan Trevanny, a poor British picture framer suffering from myeloid leukemia.

Trevanny, who fears his death will leave his wife and son destitute, accepts Minot's offer of a visit to a medical specialist in Hamburg.

Trevanny's wife, Simone, discovers a Swiss bank book with a large sum in his name and suspects that he is hiding something.

He realizes that Simone has accepted her husband's blood money and in doing so has remained silent about her suspicions of Ripley's instigation of the entire affair.

In The New York Times, Christopher Lehmann-Haupt wrote that the novel "gets off to a very strong beginning" and described how he appreciated the plot once Ripley set it in motion and stood back.

She decides to bring Tom Ripley back to center stage, and since there is no reason whatsoever for him to be there, she must force him on us implausibly.