By 1938, Maugham had become a legend as a playwright, novelist and magician of the short story. He then wrote The Summing Up to give some account of how he learned his craft and why he became such an acute observer of human beings.

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 fiancée Isabel whose choice between love and wealth have lifelong repercussions, and Elliott Templeton, her uncle, a classic expatriate American snob.Maugham himself wanders in and out of the story, to observe his characters struggling with their fates.