Synopsis
In 1974, George Smiley, the Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service (known as "Circus"), is investigating his own organisation in the aftermath of capturing a Soviet mole amongst the service's previous leadership. He seeks clues to the trail of Karla, his KGB counterpart and nemesis. To protect the politically weakened spy service from the Government war hawks, Smiley must launch a successful offensive espionage operation against the enemy. To that effect, he, along with analysts Connie Sachs and Doc di Salis, look into investigations unreasonably suppressed by Bill Haydon, the identified mole. They discover Sam Collins's investigation of a money laundering operation in Vientiane, Laos, which points to involvement from Karla.
Collins' investigations prompt Smiley to recall Westerby—The Honourable Gerald "Jerry" Westerby, a former newspaper reporter and occasional SIS operative—and despatch him to Hong Kong. Once there Westerby blackmails a banker for photographs of the account of Drake Ko—destination of the Soviet money transmitted via Vientiane. The photographs reveal to Westerby that it is a "lock-away account", featuring only the name of the founder's trust—"Drake Ko"; moreover, the trust beneficiary is identified only via fingerprint; no money has been withdrawn, and the balance is about half a million American dollars.
The parallel investigations in Hong Kong and London identify an 'Elizabeth Worthington' as Ko's blonde girlfriend, "Liese Worth." Elizabeth ('Lizzie') Worthington was previously the girlfriend of bush pilot Tiny Ricardo, a Mexican mercenary in Vientiane; as such, she thought herself a British intelligence agent run by Collins. Sachs and di Salis interview a Mr Hibbert, learning that he is the missionary who named the foundling Ko brothers "Drake" and "Nelson" to honour Britain; and that "Liese" was the name of Hibbert's dead wife.
US intelligence reports that Ricardo is alive and that he has approached them with information about an opium cargo he was to fly to Red China. Because the US want to arrest Ko as a drug kingpin, they give Smiley 10 to 12 weeks to pursue Circus interests before intervening. Smiley quickly grasps the implication of Tiu's (Ko's second-in-command) quick trip to Shanghai six weeks before Ricardo's planned opium cargo flight to Red China. It was to meet with Nelson, Drake's brother, to arrange their reunion rendezvous, via which Nelson would escape China in Ricardo's Beechcraft.
Smiley thus decides to force Ko to react to being spied upon, thereby advancing Operation Dolphin. Westerby manœuvres Lizzie Worthington to dinner. She calls Tiu to the restaurant; before him, Westerby interviews her about Ricardo, the bush pilot, about the connection between Indocharter Air Transport and the Soviet embassy in Vientiane. Surprised and personally relieved, Westerby perceives her ignorance of the gold seam, of Nelson Ko and of the Soviet connection.
On Circus orders, Westerby finds the bush pilot-opium smuggler Charlie Marshall in Battambang, Cambodia, and manages to board a flight Marshall is flying en route to Phnom Penh. Ricardo also is aboard, but Westerby doesn't grasp who he is until Phnom Penh; in evading him, Ricardo shoots at Westerby. That night, Westerby takes Marshall from an opium den and interrogates him, learning that Lizzie was a heroin courier for Collins; that she directly intervened with Drake on Ricardo's behalf; that Tiu offered Marshall $5,000 for a flight, which he turned down; and where, between flights, Ricardo currently hides.
Westerby pursues Ricardo, by ferry, across the Mekong River into Thailand; Ricardo tells Westerby that Tiu, on behalf of Ko, hired Ricardo to fly opium into China and pick up a package, paying Ricardo's debts as an advance for the job; instead of completing the job, Ricardo stole the opium and the Beechcraft airplane and went into hiding. Westerby tells Ricardo that Nelson was the package. Ricardo again tries to kill Westerby, with a delayed-action hand grenade in the fuel tank of his hired car; Westerby figures out the ruse, and safely watches the car explode.
On 30 April 1975 Westerby arrives at an American air force base in northeast Thailand and cables his report to the Circus; he also learns that the North Vietnamese Army has captured Saigon, winning and ending the Vietnam War (1945-75). In turn, the Circus orders his direct return to London, explicitly ordering him not return to Hong Kong. Disobeying, Westerby goes to Hong Kong. At his flat he finds the corpse of Luke, his photojournalist roommate, who has been shot dead.
To ascertain the successful conclusion of Operation Dolphin, Smiley, Guillam, and Fawn (Smiley's factotum-bodyguard), along with the CIA men Martello and Murphy, are in Hong Kong to capture Nelson Ko. Smiley knows that Nelson will escape China (as Drake did in 1951) on a fishing fleet junk, going to the southernmost island of Po Toi.
On the run, and spurred on by schoolboy romanticism, Jerry Westerby remains in Hong Kong—to rescue Lizzie Worthington (he takes her from a cocktail party), and to protect Nelson from capture by the Circus, while the CIA spies on Drake. They go to her apartment; Smiley enters unannounced, and Westerby, expecting either Drake or Tiu, assaults him, before realizing it is his boss. In turn, Fawn manhandles Jerry. Smiley orders Fawn and Guillam to put Westerby aboard a flight to London but Westerby escapes, gets Lizzie, and they take a boat to Po Toi. There, she shows him the places special to Drake, helping Westerby to determine where Nelson will land from China. After arranging a next-night rendezvous with Westerby, Lizzie returns to Hong Kong.
That night on Po Toi island, Westerby finds Drake and Tiu at the beach, awaiting Nelson. After disarming and disabling Tiu, Westerby tells Drake that he wants Lizzie for himself, in exchange for saving Nelson from the British and the Americans. Drake is sceptical and hesitates. Yet just as Nelson lands, American helicopters appear and load Nelson on a helicopter. As the helicopters pull away, Westerby is shot and killed by Fawn.
The CIA, not the British, detain and interrogate Nelson; his interrogators do not include di Salis and Sachs. The success of Operation Dolphin yields top Circus jobs for Enderby and Collins, who becomes (temporary) Chief of the Circus. Smiley and Connie Sachs are retired with pensions, and Peter Guillam is sent to head the scalphunters in Brixton.
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