The Berlin Wall is down, the Cold War is over, but the world's second oldest profession is very much alive. George Smiley accepts an invitation to dine with the eager young men and women of the Circus' latest intake ; and over coffee and brandy, by flickering firelight, he beguilingly offers them his personal thoughts on espionage past, present, and future. In doing so, he prompts one of his former Circus colleagues into a searching examination of his own eventful secret life.