The time was the early 19th century, when European traders and adventurers first began to penetrate the fabulously rich, perilously forbidding Chinese mainland. And it was in this exciting time and exotic place that a giant of an Englishman, Dirk Struan, set out to turn the desolate island of Hong Kong into an impregnable fortress of British power, and to make himself supreme ruler.

(Key Words: Hong Kong, China, Fiction, James Clavell, Novels, Power).