In 1977, the book won the Gold Dagger award for the best crime novel of the year and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize.

In 1974 George Smiley, the chief of the British secret intelligence service referred to as The Circus, is repairing the damage done to their operations by double agent Bill Haydon and looking for opportunities to target Karla, the Moscow Centre spymaster.

Through code and contacts already in Southeast Asia, Smiley dispatches Jerry Westerby, a newspaper reporter in Tuscany and occasional Circus operative, to Hong Kong under the guise of a sports journalist.

Westerby traces the Soviet money to Drake Ko, a local businessman with links to both the criminal underworld and the British establishment.

Charlie Marshall and Tiny Ricardo (both pilots and smugglers) were approached by Drake to carry opium into China and return with a package.

Nelson would be a prime intelligence source on both Soviet and Chinese capabilities, but political maneuverings between London and Washington hamper the investigation.

Smiley instructs Westerby to become more proactive in his investigations, referred to as "shaking the tree," to force Drake into moving forward more quickly with his plans to extract Nelson.

In the aftermath, it is revealed that the British government (Lacon, Collins and Enderby) have made a deal behind the scenes where the CIA will interrogate Nelson alone, freezing out Smiley and the Circus.

In the aftermath of the debacle, Guillam contemplates the possibility that Smiley allowed the CIA to gain the upper hand so as to have himself removed as head of the Circus.

The Circus The Steering Committee (authorising further operations after the Ko bank account papers are obtained) Other characters Jonathan Powell, producer of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (1979), said the BBC considered producing The Honourable Schoolboy but a production in Southeast Asia was considered prohibitively expensive and therefore the BBC instead adapted the third novel of the Karla Trilogy, Smiley's People (1979), which was broadcast in 1982.