Alec Leamas, the head of the Berlin station for the British secret service, waits at a checkpoint on the Berlin Wall for his agent Karl Riemeck, whose cover has been blown, to cross over to safety in the West. Riemeck’s mistress Elvira, who Leamas believes knows too much about the spy operation, crosses into West Berlin and tells Leamas that Riemeck will cross soon. As Leamas watches, Riemeck is shot and killed by the East German sentries. Riemeck is the last of Leamas’s agents in Berlin to be killed off by Hans-Dieter Mundt, the head of the East German secret service, the Abteilung.
Leamas is summoned back to London by Control, the head of the British intelligence agency called “the Circus.” Control tasks Leamas with one final mission before retiring: to kill Mundt. Leamas goes to Control’s house and meets with Peter Guillam and George Smiley, an agent and a former agent who worked on Mundt’s case back in 1959, when Mundt was a spy in London. Together the men hatch a plan.
Leamas takes on a double identity. He is demoted to work in the banking department, where he becomes an alcoholic wreck, then disappears from the Circus entirely after being accused of stealing. Rumors circulate at the Circus that Leamas’s pension will be small, because of an interruption in his service after World War Two.
Leamas lives in a squalid apartment, drinking too much and not socializing with anyone. He is sent by Mr. Pitt, a man at an employment agency whom he thinks he recognizes, to work at a library. There he meets a young Jewish woman and member of the Communist party named Liz Gold. They have an affair and Liz falls in love with Leamas. One night, she can tell that he is preparing to do something and that they must say goodbye. The next day, Leamas punches Ford, a grocer who refuses him credit, and goes to jail for three months.
When he gets out, he is approached by East German spies in London, Ashe and Kiever. They say he will get fifteen-thousand pounds now and another five thousand in a year for information he gives about his service. Leamas travels to The Hague, where he is interviewed by a Russian agent named Peters. Leamas tells Peters about how he first made contact with Karl Riemeck and about the intelligence Riemeck provided. Peters is skeptical that Riemeck would have had access to so much information. Leamas learns from Riemeck that Elvira was killed in West Germany, which puzzles him.
Peters arrives late, so Leamas takes a walk on the beach. He thinks about Liz and how she made him remember what it feels like to take pleasure in life. He hopes to return to her. When Peters arrives, he tells Leamas that there is a wanted ad in the London papers for Leamas’s arrest. Leamas accuses Peters of having revealed his defection to London to force him to stay, but he actually suspects that Control is behind this. Peters tells him he must go to the East for his own safety and to be interrogated further, and they fly to Berlin.
Leamas meets Fiedler, the second in command at the Abteilung and its best interrogator. He is a communist but believes strongly in his cause. In planning to destroy Mundt, Control is counting on Fiedler to collect the evidence about Mundt (once Leamas frames him) and prosecute a case against his boss. Fiedler asks Leamas about the details of his service and about his philosophy. Leamas steadfastly denies that he believes in anything , which is what he told Liz as well.
Fiedler has Leamas write to the two banks to inquire about the accounts. He gets word back that the money was withdrawn from the bank in Copenhagen on days when Mundt traveled to that city.
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