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