Despite its impressive history and reputation, the international trading company Struan & Co (the Noble House of the title) is in trouble. Overextended by the previous management, new Tai-Pan Ian Dunross (Pierce Brosnan) has had to issue public stock to improve the company's financial standing. Even this, however, has not given him the capital he needs. As a result he is courting a private investor, American billionaire Linc Bartlett (Ben Masters).
In Part 2, a kidnapping plot takes an insidious twist; a Communist mole is unearthed; Gornt and Bartlett (John Rhys-Davies, Ben Masters) conspire to make Struan stock plummet.
In Part 3, romance blooms between Linc and Orlanda (Ben Masters, Julia Nickson); and between the tai-pan and Casey (Pierce Brosnan, Deborah Raffin), who frolic in Macao
Conclusion. Haunted by a tragedy at the race track, the tai-pan (Pierce Brosnan) travels to mainland China to seek financial aid and returns to face a climactic cataclysm.
