The Honourable Schoolboy

The second installment of John le Carré's Karla trilogy, following Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, picks up in the aftermath of a devastating betrayal. Bill Haydon, a senior officer at "the Circus" (the nickname for Britain's Secret Intelligence Service, derived from its headquarters near Cambridge Circus in London), has been unmasked as a Soviet mole planted by Karla, a shadowy Soviet spymaster. George Smiley, the quiet, myopic spy who caught Haydon, has been appointed caretaker chief of the wreckage.

The novel opens in Hong Kong, where journalists at the Foreign Correspondents' Club, among them Luke, a young American reporter, discover that the British intelligence station on Victoria Peak has been shut down. Old Craw, a veteran Australian journalist, publishes an article describing a wholesale retreat of British intelligence from Southeast Asia. Craw's article is actually orchestrated disinformation: Smiley wants Moscow Centre, the Soviet intelligence headquarters, to believe the Circus is dead.

In London, Smiley abandons his reconciliation with his wife, Ann, and throws himself into dismantling Haydon's damage. He proposes a method of "back-bearings," tracing Haydon's sabotage to identify what Moscow Centre most wanted hidden, and assembles a small team: Connie Sachs, a Moscow Centre specialist; Doc di Salis, an eccentric China-watcher; Peter Guillam, his loyal aide; and Fawn, a silent bodyguard.

Connie's research uncovers a Soviet "gold seam," a clandestine money-laundering operation channeling funds through Vientiane, Laos, which Haydon had suppressed. Smiley summons Sam Collins, a former field officer sacked under Haydon, who reveals that the money passed through a small aviation company in Vientiane run by overseas Chinese from the Swatow region. Sam also identifies Elizabeth Worthington, alias Lizzie, the common-law wife of the company's pilot, a Mexican mercenary named Tiny Ricardo. Connie traces the gold seam's new routing to a locked trust account in Hong Kong containing roughly half a million dollars, held by Drake Ko, a prominent Hong Kong businessman.

Smiley secures authorization from Oliver Lacon, the Cabinet Office liaison, and presents his case to a Whitehall steering committee that includes Saul Enderby, a hawkish Foreign Office figure. He also establishes a secret partnership with Martello, the CIA's London station chief: The Americans will provide logistical support while the British retain operational control. Guillam grows uneasy when Sam Collins volunteers to deliver the agreement to Martello and lingers with him for over an hour.

In Tuscany, Jerry Westerby, the son of a deceased press baron and a part-time Circus operative, receives a coded telegram recalling him to London. He leaves his young companion and, in London, signs on as a roving Asian correspondent for his cover and undergoes tradecraft training. Smiley delivers a personal speech about duty, which Jerry cuts short, insisting he will follow orders without justification.

Jerry arrives in Hong Kong and blackmails Frost, a bank trustee managing Ko's trust account, into leaving his office while Jerry photographs the file. The photographs confirm that all payments routed through Vientiane have reached the account, which has never been touched. Jerry attends the races at Happy Valley, briefly meets Ko, and afterward follows him to a cemetery where Ko has visited a memorial to his dead son Nelson, a stone effigy with fresh orchids at its feet. Ko then leaves in a car driven by a beautiful blond woman.

The woman is identified through Craw's agent network as "Liese Worth." Smiley recognizes her as Elizabeth Worthington, Ricardo's former partner. Through visits to Lizzie's estranged husband and parents, he confirms that she once worked as an unwitting courier for Sam Collins under the work name "Mellon."

Di Salis traces the Ko brothers' history through a retired Baptist missionary. Drake and Nelson arrived at a mission school in Shanghai as orphaned boat children around 1936. Nelson later studied shipbuilding at Leningrad University from 1953 to 1956, where a Soviet talent-spotter named Bretlev likely recruited him for Karla's service. Di Salis identifies Nelson as a high-ranking Chinese official with access to naval planning and military intelligence. The picture crystallizes: Nelson is Karla's mole inside China, and the half million dollars in Ko's trust is Moscow Centre's "alimony," payment banked where Nelson cannot yet access it.

Smiley decides to "shake Ko's tree" by provoking him into action. Jerry approaches Lizzie at her apartment, posing as an old acquaintance, and takes her to dinner. When Ko's enforcer Tiu arrives, Jerry deliberately feeds him provocative information: Ricardo is alive, and Jerry's newspaper has evidence linking Ko to Russian money. The provocation works, but at a terrible cost. Tiu books urgent travel to mainland China, and Frost, the banker Jerry blackmailed, is found tortured and strangled.

Jerry is ordered to pursue Charlie Marshall, Ricardo's half-Chinese flying partner, in Phnom Penh as the Khmer Rouge close in. Jerry extracts Charlie from an opium den and interrogates him on the banks of the Mekong. Charlie reveals that Tiu hired Ricardo to fly 400 kilos of opium into China and bring back an unspecified cargo. Ricardo lost his nerve, kept the opium, and went into hiding. Both Charlie and Lizzie later pleaded with Ko for Ricardo's life, and Ko agreed, provided Ricardo stayed hidden. Jerry realizes the cargo was not contraband but a person: Ko's brother Nelson.

Jerry tracks Ricardo to a compound in North East Thailand. Ricardo confirms the story but proves dangerous: After Jerry departs, the car he has been driving explodes from a planted grenade. London orders Jerry home, but he refuses. Driven by guilt over Frost's death, his growing feelings for Lizzie, and a conviction that Smiley's operation will betray the values it claims to defend, he re-enters Hong Kong covertly. In his apartment, he discovers Luke, the American journalist, shot dead by Ko's people who mistook Luke for Jerry.

Jerry takes Lizzie from her apartment at gunpoint. She reveals that Ko showed her a remote inlet on Po Toi, Hong Kong's most southerly island, where he plans to receive Nelson during the Tin Hau festival, an annual celebration honoring the sea goddess. Jerry understands that Lizzie is the source from which Sam Collins, and through him Smiley, learned Ko's plan.

Smiley, Guillam, and Fawn have flown to Hong Kong and set up in the American Consulate alongside Martello. Enderby, now positioning himself as Smiley's successor, and Martello are maneuvering behind Smiley's back.

Jerry travels to Po Toi with Lizzie on the day of the festival, sends her toward safety, and descends alone to the inlet. Drake Ko arrives by sampan with Tiu. Jerry ambushes Tiu and confronts Ko, but events overtake them. Nelson's junk appears; Ko signals with a lamp, and Nelson wades ashore. The brothers embrace on the beach. Then helicopters descend with searchlights. Figures tear the brothers apart and bundle Nelson into a helicopter. Jerry charges forward, driven not by loyalty to the operation but by everything the brothers' reunion represents. A figure in the helicopter doorway fires, and Jerry falls dead on the beach.

The Circus briefly celebrates Nelson's capture, but the triumph curdles. Nelson is taken to Philadelphia, not to England. The conspiracy Guillam suspected is confirmed: Enderby and Martello arranged for the Americans to get Nelson in exchange for championing Enderby as Smiley's replacement, with Sam Collins as their intermediary. Smiley is quietly removed; Enderby takes over as Chief. Smiley retreats to his house in Bywater Street, alone. The novel closes with a fragment of a letter Smiley wrote to Ann, confessing that he has learned to interpret life in terms of conspiracy, recognizing those around him as his peers in a world he has helped create. Guillam reports that Smiley never mentions Jerry Westerby again.