派拉蒙TV准备将约翰·勒·卡雷的成名作《冷战谍魂》搬上电视荧屏，编剧西蒙·博福伊([贫民窟的百万富翁])。故事围绕冷战时期的英国间谍亚历克·利玛斯展开。1965年该小说曾被派拉蒙搬上大银幕，主演理查德·伯顿，该片编剧保罗·戴恩将担任新剧执行制片。新剧由The Ink Factory(《夜班经理》)担任制作。

A British spy is banished to Panama after having an affair with an ambassador's mistress. Once there he makes connection with a local tailor with a nefarious past and connections to all of the top political and gangster figures in Panama. The tailor also has a wife, who works for the Panamanian president and a huge debt. The mission is to learn what the President intends to do with the Canal.

Taken from the book by John le Carre, George Smiley rallies to the aid of his former intelligence colleague, Ailsa Brimley, to investigate a mysterious letter from a junion master's wife at Carne School - a boy's school. When Smiley goes to Carne to investigate, he finds the junior master's wife brutually murdered with her husband as one of the suspects. Smiley begins to scratch at the surface of the closed knit society of Carne and soon begins to find that things are not as they seem. Secret societies, sexual abuse, and a mysterious boy, Timothy Perkins, who is either another suspect, witness, or victim.

克利斯多夫钟斯在片钟扮演一位波兰难民，逃到英国后，贝英国情报机构不择手段加以训练，要他潜往东德刺特一件机密文件。受训过程九死一生，令人提心吊胆；实际负起间谍任务后，枪林弹雨，险象环生，多亏德国美女相助，逢凶化吉，却贝自己人出卖耍弄，酝酿出银幕有史以来最凄惨、最刺激的悲壮斯杀。