Traces the founding of Alibaba, the world's second largest Internet company, by an English teacher from humble origins, drawing on exclusive interviews to explore how the company and Jack Ma have become icons and leading employers in China's booming private sector.

The iron triangle -- Jack magic -- From student to teacher -- Hope and coming to America -- China is coming on -- Bubble and birth -- Backers : Goldman and SoftBank -- Burst and back to China -- Born again : Taobao and the humiliation of eBay -- Yahoo's billion-dollar bet -- Growing pains -- Icon or Icarus?.