Patricia Highsmith

Two men meet in the picturesque backstreets of Athens. Chester MacFarlane is a conman with multiple false identities, near the end of his rope and on the run with his young wife Colette. Rydal Keener is a young drifter looking for adventure: he finds it in one evening as the law catches up to Chester and Colette, and their fates become fatally entwined.

Therese first glimpses Carol in the New York department store where she is working as a sales assistant. Carol is choosing a present for her daughter. Standing there at the counter, Therese suddenly feels wholly innocent - wholly unprepared for the first shock of love.