His company handles millions made from the international sales of drugs and arms. Especially lucrative to the firm is the former Soviet states, whose criminal elements have an ally in the British company.
Tiger wants the business to be a family affair.
He pressures his son Oliver to begin to learn the business and ultimately take it over when Tiger retires. However, Oliver loathes the illicit dealings of his father and begins talking to the customs blokes. However the situation abruptly changes when his father's former allies in Russia try to wrestle the business from Tiger, using any means possible. Oliver knows he must decide between his family by rescuing his father or justice, by turning him over to the law. Of all the Cold War espionage novelists, John Le Carre has switched to the post Soviet Union environment without missing a beat.