Business tycoon Ian Dunross is chairman of Struan & Co. the oldest and largest of the British-East Asia trading companies. A "Tai-Pan" or "supreme leader" of the Noble House, the most successful business in the land, his unflinching road to wealth is marked with an odyssey of guilt, jealousy and betrayal.

As Duncross comes to terms with a series of ancient promises and dark secrets he faces adversary Quillan Gornt, a lesser tai-pan driven by envy, who will stop at nothing to ensure the ultimate demise of Duncross' Noble House.