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The story begins with the heroine Katie. In order to escape the flashy but empty social circle of London in the 1820s, and to avoid becoming an old girl waiting to be married, Katie accepted the proposal of the taciturn bacteriologist Walter Fane. After Finn brought Katie to Hong Kong, China, he quickly devoted himself to his bacteriology research. Lonely Katie had an extramarital affair with Charlie Townsend, a middle-aged married man who was charming in appearance but wretched in heart. After learning the truth, Finn felt regretful. In order to retaliate and rebuild his life, Finn decided to make a desperate move and took Katie away to a remote town where cholera was raging. On the front lines where the plague was raging, Finn helped the locals slowly control the epidemic. Katie volunteered in a monastery and hospital run by French nuns, and gradually found the courage and meaning of life in the process of helping others.

Is life a gorgeous adventure or a shackled skin? The protagonist Philip was born lame, his parents died early, and he was adopted by his uncle. A lack of care in his childhood resulted in his sensitive and shy personality. Philip's life path was not smooth. He traveled to many countries, tried various careers, and had several love affairs that ended in failure. After experiencing countless pain, he finally saw clearly the shackles placed on people by faith, love, friendship, worldliness, personality, etc., And his heart returned to peace. We have been asking about the meaning of life all our lives, and we have devoted our youth and even our lives to it. In fact, everything in life will eventually return to the ordinary, and ordinary is the true meaning of life.

In 1930, "In Search of Joy" was first published in the form of a serial in Harper's Bazaar. In 1958, Maugham said in an interview that "In Search of Joy" was his most proud and favorite novel. Through the description of these characters in "Happiness", Maugham revealed all kinds of bizarre, ridiculous and despicable phenomena in the British literary world at that time. In this novel, Maugham achieved the artistic perfection of writing. Margaret Drabble, a contemporary British writer and literary critic, regarded "In Search of Joy" as Maugham's most brilliant work. Maugham changed the prejudice against women in his previous works and recalled the life of a beautiful woman as an admirer, embellished with many anecdotes from the literary and artistic circles. He draws materials from reality, blends fiction with fact, and uses the narrator Ashenden to narrate his early interactions with the famous writer Driffield and his ex-wife Rosie. This past event is the biographical subject that another popular novelist Keir wants to explore, and the story begins. Deep in Ashenden's memory, we find that the charming Rosie, although romantic and merciless by nature, is still kind, frank and lovely...