Lord of Edessa, The

Tom has to make a decision: Eric, a Munich university professor and successful author has not only given him a job as his secretary but has gradually become his mentor. Tom is fascinated by the older man's charisma but he doesn't see through his filial role until long after it has become oedipal. Tom is having an affair with Camilla, Eric‘s wife. When he tries to end it, Camilla swears her love and calls Tom the only bright moment in her otherwise botched marital life. Camilla is dependent on Eric in every regard, financially as well as socially. And the more dependent she is on him, the more Eric enjoys humiliating her. As enlightened and politically correct Eric is in his books, the more contemptable he is in cruelly pitting the people in his life against each other.
Tom is torn between love and abhorrence for these two people but allows himself to be persuaded by Eric to join them on a last work-related trip to their cottage in South Tyrol. There, Eric reveals that he has long known about the affair. But then, during a nocturnal stroll, Eric disappears. Tom realizes that he and Camilla are the pawns in one of Eric’s power games. Camilla, drunk, is convinced that Tom has taken one of her fantasies seriously, has actually killed Eric and she hates him for it. Tom wakes up the next morning to find Camilla gone as well. The Italian police arrive at the house and arrest Tom for murder...