Summary

Elio and Oliver arrived in Rom and went to their hotel. Oliver’s publisher invited them to attend a poetry reading at a bookstore later that evening. They went into the bathroom together, watched each other defecate, and showered together.

They left the hotel and walked through the streets of Rome together on their way to the bookstore. Elio suggested a shortcut and took Oliver to a place where, three years earlier, he had seen a young man who he was attracted to. The two of them had locked eyes and the man had asked Elio to come with him to a nearby cinema but Elio had refused. Oliver told Elio that he needed to make a phone call and Elio continued to the bookstore alone.

When Elio arrived he realized that the event was celebrating the same poet he had met in the...