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.