Larry Darrell is a young American in search of the absolute. The progress of his spiritual odyssey involves him with some of Maugham`s most brilliant characters - his fiancee Isabel, whose choice between love and wealth has lifelong repercussions, and Elliott Templeton, her uncle, a classic expatriate snob. The most ambitious of Maugham`s novels, this is also one in which Maugham himself plays a part, as he wanders in and out of the story, observing his characters struggling with their fates.