Some say George Smiley is in innocent retirement. Others say he was sacked after the Czech scandal. But all agree that nobody ever leaves the 'Circus' without some unfinished business. Brought out of retirement to trace an enemy infiltrator in the department where he was once the prize employee, the shy and retiring master of espionage moves forwards to investigate and finds himself going backwards over very old ground ...

George Smiley goes to the aid of his former colleague, Ailsa Brimley after she receives a letter from a woman predicting her own murder and naming her husband as the killer. After the woman is found dead, they uncover secret societies, sexual abuse, and a mysterious boy.

Cello-playing cop Jack Friar searches for a teenage runaway on Turk Street and ends up in the home of an elderly couple. The house also turns out to be the headquarters for a gang of criminals who are planning a bank robbery, and Jack is quickly held hostage. When Jack is left alone with the leader's girlfriend, a master manipulator of the gang, he teaches her to play the cello and the two share a mutal attraction. Jack can't decide if she's for real...