George Smiley had liked the man and now the man was dead. Suicide. But why? An anoymous letter had alleged that Foreign Office man Samuel Fenman had been a member of the Communist Party as a student before the war. Nothing very unusual for his generation. Smiley had made it clear that the investigation - little more than a routine security check - was over and that the file on Fenman could be closed. Next day Fenman was dead with a note by his body saying that his career was finished and he couldn't go on. Why? Smiley was puzzled ...