In the bleak days of the Cold War, espionage veteran George Smiley is forced out of semi-retirement to uncover a Soviet agent within MI6's echelons.

George Smiley has been retired for about a year when he finds a friend from the Circus, his old outfit in British Intelligence, sitting in his living room. He is taken to the home of an advisor to the Prime Minister on intelligence matters, where he finds evidence that one of the men in the senior ranks of his old agency is a Russian spy. Smiley is asked to find him, without official access to any of the files in the Circus or letting on that anyone is under suspicion. With only a few old friends, his own powers of deduction, and secrecy as weapons, Smiley must unearth the spy who turned him out of the Circus.—John Vogel <[email protected]>

George Smiley is called out of retirement when evidence arises that suggests the Soviets have managed to plant a mole, a deep cover agent, at the very heart of the Circus, as the British Secret Service is known. Smiley had similar concerns before his forced retirement from the Circus and now the Cabinet Office would like him to pursue the matter and identify the mole, code-named Gerald. Working through official files and recalling events and conversations prior to his departure, Smiley concludes that his nemesis in Moscow Centre, known as Karla, has turned the Service inside out.—garykmcd