A Many-Splendoured Thing tells the story of a married British foreign correspondent called Mark Elliot (Ian Morrison in real life and based in Singapore where he lived with his wife and children) who falls in love with a Eurasian doctor originally from Mainland China who trained at the Royal Free Hospital Medical College in London University, only to encounter prejudice from her family and from Hong Kong society.

On the surface it is a love story but there is an historical perspective relating to China, Hong Kong and the peoples and societies that populated the island. This includes many who have fled from the final stages of the Chinese Civil War, both Chinese and Europeans long settled in China.

It portrays an insight into class and race prejudice that is as relevant today in Hong Kong as it was in the fifties. Although it is technically a novel, the book is strongly autobiographical. Han Suyin's real life lover was killed in The Korean War in 1950. Two years later, she married Leon F. Comber, a British officer in the Malayan Special Branch.