While most Hong Kong gangster films illustrate the seductive, poisonous power of triad societies, luring the young and impressionable with promises of wealth and power, Taylor Wong's film does the opposite. Chow Yun Fat's sophisticated, straight-laced hero Li Man-ho is not only offered a place in the Hung Hing society, but forced to become its leader, after his father, Hung Hing’s big boss, is brutally murdered. As a strategy to keep the gang's illegal activities at arm's length, Li tries to leases its business ventures out to rival gangs, rather than start an all-out war. While his veteran senior Uncle Shing (Chan Wai-man) is willing to try, disgruntled youngster Yeung Kong (Roy Cheung) feels undermined by Li's arrival and is determined to take control more forcefully, which inevitably leads to bloodshed and betrayal. The irony of Triads The Inside Story is that, through Chow's character, the film actually paints an outsider's view of the societies, questioning their traditions and loyalties from the perspective of an educated business-oriented brain.

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