Jonathan Pine, the night manager at a posh Zurich hotel, is a well-bred
Englishman who battled the IRA in Ireland, and, while still an average
civilian himself, had some tangential experience with the British
Secret Service. Before his employment in Zurich he worked as a
hotelier in Cairo, where a woman he grew infatuated with had given him
documents for safekeeping. Seeing the paper’s sensitive nature, he gave
copies to his friends in Intelligence, and soon afterwards the woman
was met her death at the hands of her rich boyfriend. The narrative
eventually introduces readers to an arms dealer as the killer, although
Pine feels responsible himself.By sheer coincidence, the arms
dealer turns up with his staff in tow at the hotel in Zurich. He and
Pine become friendly, and Pine grabs this opportunity to enter into the
man’s confidence. Pine contacts his secret service acquaintances, and
they gibe him the green light. Thus Pine starts a slow, intricate
process infiltration into the arms dealer’s operation.A major
part of the novel is Pine's slow building of a cover story that will
withstand any background checks.
LeCarré is being true to himself in
avoiding the pitfalls of omniscience, letting the reader know only what
is said and what is done, leaving the reader to figure out the meanings
of characters’ motives and the critical scenes.As Pine
penetrates the arms dealer’s inner sanctum, the novel develops two
narratives: one tracks Pine's penetration, and the other that follows
Pine's friends as well as their colleagues in American intelligence to
safeguard the operation from suspicious operatives in their own
agencies. The climax is built up further when Pine has to minimize
contact with his handlers, while the arms dealer’s organization is
narrowing the scope of their search for a possible plant.The plot’s
twists and characters seem surreal, but Le Carré masterfully weaves
them into an impressively convincing web.