«A bold English adventuer. An invincible Japanese warlord. A beautiful woman torn between two ways of life, two ways of love. All brought together in a mighty saga of a time and place aflame with conflict, passion, ambition, lust and the struggle for power. «Superbly crafted... grips the reader like a riptide... gets the juices flowing!» — «Washington Star». «Exciting, totally absorbing... be prepared for late nights, meals unlasting, buisness unattended...» — «Philadelphia Inquirer». «Adventure and action, the suspense of danger, shocking, touching human relationships... a climactic human story». — «Los Angeles Times».»

It is the early 19th century, when European traders and adventurers first began to penetrate the forbidding Chinese mainland. And it is in this exciting time and exotic place that a giant of an Englishman, Dirk Straun, sets out to turn the desolate island of Hong Kong into an impregnable fortress of British power, and to make himself supreme ruler... Tai-Pan!