officer and the central person in the novel, is called to the headquarters of MI5, Britain's Secret Service, because Samuel Fennan ,his friend and collegue, has been found dead, leaving a suicide note.
During his investigation of
Fennqn's death, Smiley suspects it is murder ,he himself nearly killed by presumely, foreign secrets agents from German.
The novel dramatically builds
up to the funal climax in which Smiley is confronted with Dieter Frey, his friend and former student and his fellow agent in the fight against the Nazi German war machine, their common enemies in World War II.
The investigation leads to
Elsa, Fennan's wife being the East German Spy and also Frey involved.
From Commandant to Captive: The Memoirs of Stalag Luft III Commandant Col. Friedrich Wilhelm Von Lindeiner Genannt Von Wildau With Postwar Interviews, Letters, and Testimony