In 1988, Lord Larry docked his deeply-in-debt yacht, the Aphrodite, in Port Charles. He believed that the only way he could get his fortune back was to locate a long-lost Chinese civilization with the help of a key dubbed the Dragon Bone. In order to find the civilization, Larry needed more than just the Dragon Bone; he also needed an emerald and a map. He was also being followed by the villainous Domino who wanted the Dragon Bone. Domino, though, wasn't the one that Larry needed to be worried about. Tracy Quartermaine, Larry's ex-wife, also wanted to get rich, and she blackmailed Larry into giving her and their son, Ned, a share of any profits he made from the quest. If Larry refused, Tracy said that she would reveal that Larry wasn't the true Ashton heir -- but rather an impostor!

The Dragon Bone was buried by Robert Scorpio's dog Friday, and the quest fizzled. Still in debt, Larry left Port Charles with his new wife, Arielle. Larry soon after lost his title when a drifter, Charlie Prince, turned out to be the real Ashton heir.

In 1991, Larry returned alone to Port Charles and formed a cartel with Harlan Barrett, Leopold Taub, and Cesar Faison in order to control global business of carbon disulfide, a toxic substance manufactured at a Port Charles cannery. To achieve their goals, the cartel forced ELQ CEO Paul Hornsby to marry Tracy Quartermaine and take control of her ELQ stock. The trio ordered Paul to kill Tracy if necessary. The cartel was busted up on Founder's Day by the Port Charles Police Department and all traces of the toxic substance were destroyed.

Several years later, Larry returned to Port Charles and was reunited with his son Ned and his former wife Tracy courtesy of Jerry Jacks. Tracy had brokered a deal with Jerry in which he would return her husband in exchange for stock in ELQ. Tracy had expected Jerry to deliver her current husband Luke Spencer but instead he brought Larry to her. Neither Ned nor Tracy were thrilled with Larry's return, but Larry made the best of the unexpected family reunion and enjoyed the liquor supply. He also secretly updated Jerry with information about the Quartermaine family and ELQ.

By the end of November, the truth had once again caught up to Larry. Larry had been conspiring with Faison to seize control of ELQ by putting an imposter in Luke Spencer's place. Dr. Patrick Drake and Sam McCall Morgan had accessed Larry's safe deposit box, and they had found the plans for a high-tech mask that had been designed by the World Security Bureau. Meanwhile, the real Luke Spencer had been held prisoner -- drugged and confined to a straitjacket -- at Miscavige, a high security prison for the criminally insane. Helena Cassadine had been the driving force behind everything. The last step of the plan had been to kill Luke, so Helena paid her prisoner a visit with her henchman, Faison, who had been wearing the "Luke" mask.

Before Helena could kill Luke and put Faison in Luke's place, Julian Jerome and Alexis Davis arrived to Luke's rescue. Later, Larry realized that the jig was up when Alexis entered the Quartermaine mansion with a bedraggled Luke Spencer. Friends and family had gathered for the annual Quartermaine Thanksgiving Pizza, and Detective Dante Falconeri quickly took Larry into custody. However, Larry was able to give Dante the slip and escape into a getaway car that Larry had had waiting.

In January 2016, Tracy had an unexpected encounter with her ex-husband, while she was on vacation in Mexico. She'd been on the phone with her son Ned when she had smelled the heavy pungent aroma of marijuana in the air. She ended the call then found Larry indulging in a blunt on the terrace next to hers. Larry was eager to catch up with Tracy, so he invited her to join him. Tracy found herself opening up about Luke's breakdown, and Paul's murder spree. Larry was genuinely sorry for her troubles, but Tracy snapped out of it and told him that she wasn't interested in his pity. She had flown to Mexico to get away from "con artists" like Larry.

The following March, Larry turned up in Port Charles. He surprised his ex-wife and son at Metro Court Restaurant, and he explained that he was there because of the letter that he had written to Tracy. Tracy confessed that she had tossed it out because she had assumed that it had been another attempt to get money from her. Larry was disappointed because the letter had been important. According to Larry, an unexpected windfall had landed in his lap, but Ned and Tracy wondered what that had to do with Tracy. "Everything," Larry replied. Ned and Tracy agreed that it sounded like another one of Larry's schemes.

However, Larry knew Tracy well, and he dangled the bait that he was certain she would take. He told her that the windfall was tied to her father, Edward Quartermaine. It didn't take Tracy long to seek Larry out, and before long she and Laura Webber were in Turkey visiting a monastery where Edward had hidden a valuable painting of a woman who looked exactly like Tracy, except the painting was centuries old. Edward had acquired the painting during his life on the run when he had faked his death. The ladies also found a diary, and a young woman with blue eyes who claimed to be Edward's love child from an affair that Edward had had with a local woman.

Tracy returned home with the painting and her "sister," Samir Adin. Days later, Ned discovered that Larry and Samir had been in cahoots. Larry and Samir had been working a con to get their hands on the painting. A DNA test confirmed that Samir was not Edward's daughter and Samir returned to Turkey empty handed. Ned disowned his father, and on May 3, Ned filed a petition to change his name to Edward Quartermaine. Larry fled before Tracy could turn him over to the police.