Emails modeled as conversations are displayed in a user interface that enables users to read and interact with the emails within a conversation intuitively. Conversation breaks, such as those in an in-reply-to relationship between messages, are presented utilizing extra spaces between displayed message parts, excerpts of parent messages displayed above the message following the break, and/or graphical elements like broken connectors. Relationships between a user selected message and its parent within the conversation defined relationship are illustrated using graphical elements or schemes that focus on the selected message to avoid confusion due to information overload.