| Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy: In the early 1970s during the Cold War, the head of British
Intelligence, Control, resigns after an operation in Budapest, Hungary goes badly wrong.
It transpires that Control believed one of four senior figures in the service was in fact
a Russian agent - a mole - and the Hungary operation was an attempt to identify which of
them it was. Smiley had been forced into retirement by the departure of Control, but is
asked by a senior government figure to investigate a story told to him by a rogue agent,
Ricky Tarr, that there was a mole. Smiley considers that the failure of the Hungary
operation and the continuing success of Operation Witchcraft (an apparent source of
significant Soviet intelligence) confirms this, and takes up the task of finding him.
Through the efforts of Peter Guillam, Smiley obtains information that eventually leads him
to Jim Prideaux, the agent at the heart of the Hungary fiasco. He is then able to put
together the pieces of the puzzle, which lead him to the identity of the mole and the true
intent of Operation Witchcraft. |
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