A haunting romance between two beautiful young people is shattered in the cold war struggle of international super-powers. The Looking Glass War is based on John Le Carre's biting novel. A young Polish defector, Leiser (CHRISTOPHER JONES) is promised political sanctuary in England if he will return behind the Iron Curtain to confirm the suspicions of British Security chief LeClerc (RALPH RICHARDSON) and his research head, Haldane (PAUL ROGERS), that the disarmament pact has been violated. Avery, LeClerc's young aide (ANTHONY HOPKINS), supervises Leiser's training. In East Germany, Leiser meets The Girl (PIA DEGERMARK) and comes to realize they can make a life together if they can escape the espionage experts of Britain, Russia and East Germany, old men who regard their activities as an enormous game in which stakes are human lives -- rarely, if ever their own.