The "Noble House" in the title is the nickname of Struan's, the trading company first introduced in Clavell's Tai-Pan.

The novel is over a thousand pages long, and contains dozens of characters and numerous intermingling plot lines.

Meanwhile, Chinese communists, Taiwanese nationalists, and Soviet spies illegally vie for influence in Hong Kong while the British government seeks to prevent their actions.

In Noble House, Dunross finds his company the target of a hostile takeover at a time when Struan's is desperately overextended.

He is also embroiled in international espionage when he finds himself in possession of secret documents desperately desired by both the KGB and MI6.

Unlike the other Asian Saga novels, Noble House is not closely based on a specific series of events, but is more a snapshot of the 1960s in Hong Kong, serving as a capsule history of Jardine Matheson against the backdrop of the impending Vietnam War and the recent Kim Philby defection.

Though the prologue is set on June 8, 1960 against the backdrop of the real Typhoon Mary, the story opens on Sunday, August 18, 1963, and runs through the days immediately preceding the assassination of US President John F. Kennedy.

In 1961, Jardine Matheson became a public company, with the initial offer oversubscribed over 56 times, which is attributed in the novel to tai-pan Ian Dunross.

The Dairy Farm subsidiary of Jardine Matheson moved into the supermarket sector in 1964 with the acquisition of Wellcome (fictionalized as Hong Kong General Stores).

A Jardine Matheson representative office was established in Australia in 1963 (fictionalized as the next assignment of Linbar Struan).

The looming return of Hong Kong to China in 1997 is frequently mentioned in the miniseries, which was not a major concern in the 1960s.

[2] Clavell says he "wanted to write a story about two Americans who go Hong Kong to try and usurp Noble House and have a lot of adventures.

"[5] The novel retroactively connects an obscure western movie Clavell wrote and directed to the Asian Saga.

The film, Walk Like a Dragon (1960), starred Jack Lord as Linc Bartlett, who is established as an ancestor of a similarly named character in Clavell's novel.

The initial print run of 250,000 copies of Noble House was the largest in the 17-year history of Delacorte Press.

[8] Alvin Rabushka of the Hoover Institution said that the novel so well depicted Hong Kong that non-experts would not notice its accuracy.