Abe Ravelstein is a brilliant professor at a prominent
midwestern university and a man who glories in training the movers
and shakers of the political world. He has lived grandly and
ferociously - and much beyond his means. His close friend Chick has
suggested that he put forth a book of his convictions about the
ideas which sustain humankind, or kill it, and much to Ravelstein's
own surprise, he does and becomes a millionaire. Ravelstein
suggests in turn that Chick write a memoir or a life of him, and
during the course of a celebratory trip to Paris the two share
thoughts on mortality, philosophy and history, loves and friends,
old and new, and vaudeville routines from the remote past. The mood
turns more somber once they have returned to the Midwest and
Ravelstein succumbs to AIDS and Chick himself nearly dies.