Prosecutor Rusty Sabich is acquitted of murdering his colleague and former lover Carolyn Polhemus when the case collapses.

Rita, a Liverpool hairdresser who enrolled in an Open University literature course, passes her exam and gains the confidence to choose her own life.

Isherwood “Ish” Williams, one of the few survivors of a plague that wiped out most of humanity, spends his life trying to preserve knowledge and civilization in a small community near Berkeley.

David Webb, the former assassin Jason Bourne, is forced back into action when U.S.

Richard Hannay, on the run for a murder he did not commit, figures out that “the thirty-nine steps” refers to a staircase down to the sea at a house in Kent, where German spies plan to escape with British naval secrets.

James Bond foils Auric Goldfinger’s plan to rob the gold reserves at Fort Knox by sending a message hidden in a plane, and the operation is stopped.

James Bond beats the Soviet agent Le Chiffre at baccarat, survives torture and recovers with the help of Vesper Lynd, with whom he falls in love and plans to quit.

George Smiley, brought out of retirement, unmasks the Soviet mole at the top of British intelligence: Bill Haydon, a charismatic senior officer and Smiley’s wife Ann’s former lover.

British agent Alec Leamas learns that his mission to frame East German intelligence chief Hans-Dieter Mundt was really designed to protect Mundt, a British double agent, and to destroy his rival Fiedler.

Cyrano dies in Roxane’s arms after she realizes that he was the author of the letters she loved.