 Ian Struan Dunross is chairman of Struan & Co, the oldest and largest of the British-East Asia trading companies. To the Chinese, that also makes him "Tai-Pan" ("supreme leader") of the "Noble House". Unfortunatley, with his power, he inherits ancient promises, dark secrets and deep financial problems on a small island full of people who want to see Struans fall so they can become the Noble House. Dunross  worst enemy is the vicious Quillan Gornt, a lesser tia-pan, and he s doing everything in his power to bring the Noble House to ruin. Drawn into the fight between Gornt and Dunross is an upstart American billionaire who tries to gain a foothold on the Hong Kong market and has made a deal to steal something that will give him power, even over the Noble House. Unfortunately, that something has fallen into the hands of a powerful Chinese overlord. "Everybody was watching [and cheating on] everybody". Who will succeed in the end?