George Smiley is a retired principal counter-intelligence officer who is secretly brought back into 'the Circus', the code-name for the British Secret Intelligence Service, to root out a top-level mole. Smiley did not actually retire, but was removed from his post, the head of personnel, as a result of a remarkably orchestrated long-term plan by his old adversary, code-name Karla, the head of Moscow Centre.
Smiley's chief, known only as Control, had been detecting markers of Karla's intricate scheme for months and had narrowed the mole's identity to five senior officers. To stop him, Karla fashioned a set-up in the form of an offer that Control could simply not refuse. The necessarily unsanctioned operation to exploit the offer failed catastrophically, and Control, disgraced, was forced out, taking with him Smiley who, as Control's most trusted ally, was found guilty by association and also banished.
When Ricki Tarr, a resourceful, low-level field agent, thought to have defected, turns up in Britain with solid evidence pointing to the existence of the mole, thereby validating Control's long-term suspicions, Smiley, the sole remnant of the old order who can be trusted, is called in to spy on the spies. Without official access to any of the files in the Circus and without revealing that anyone is under suspicion, Smiley gradually pieces together the story, trawling through the murky waters of Cold War espionage and the painful memories from his own past.
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