Le Carrés "honourable schoolboy" is Jerry Westerby, a British intelligence agent posing as a journalist handled by the legendary George Smiley. His target is Drake Ko, a suspected Russian mole. Ko is a gang boss who rises to the heights of Hong Kong society. Ko is a quintessential Hong Kong character a mainland orphan who survives by his wits, a fierce man shaped by shifting historic currents who draws upon both Western and Chinese traditions.