When "Madame Ostrakova" (Eileen Atkins) is accosted by a man as she tries to board a bus, we discover that she has a secret Soviet past that saw her flee, leaving her daughter in Moscow. Faced with a difficult choice, she contacts the one man who might be able to help. That's "Gen. Vladimir" (Curd Jürgens) who just happens to have some links with the once again retired "Smiley" (Sir Alec Guinness) who is drafted out of his intellectual slumbers to piece together a mystery that involves his own wife "Lady Ann" (Siân Phillips), his arch nemesis "Karla", this woman and her abandoned daughter. Joh...