Many of Marquand's favorite character types occur in Point of No Return: the earnest protagonist, the rich girl one caste up to whom he aspires, and the feckless father who overshadows and exasperates his son. Charming, literary, and hopelessly addicted to his attempt to "best the system" by playing the stock market, John Grey supplies a good deal of the motivation for Charles's conservatism and ambition when his suicide necessitates Charles's giving up his chance to marry Jessica.

During the period of the romance with Jessica, Malcolm Bryant, an anthropologist caught up in the academic rat race of grants and publications, is undertaking a sociological study of Clyde for a book he eventually publishes under the title Yankee Persepolis. Marquand's satire strikes more sharply at Malcolm than at Charles whose submission is seen as sad but understandable. Malcolm's team of researchers, on the other hand, includes such oddball...