 When a fellow British agent is killed at Checkpoint Charlie right before his eyes, Alec Lemas, head of the Berlin station, returns to London headquarters. There his boss, Control, inquires if he is tired, burnt out, ready to come in from the cold. Control suggests that there is a vacancy, a desk job, that might interest him, but Alec declines adamantly. Thus, Control immediately mentions that he has something out of the ordinary in mind for a man called Hans-Dieter Mundt, who in 1959 posted as a member of an East German steel mission.