Neil Burnside, the Director of Operations for Britain's Secret Intelligence Service, objects to sending his best agents, the Sandbaggers, on a mission into Russia for Norway's Secret Service.
The Sandbaggers may be sent to Vienna to keep tabs on a possible defector, while Burnside tries to get official approval to assassinate an African dictator.
Alan Denson threatens to quit the Sandbaggers after a rough, unauthorized mission near the Soviet border, so Burnside applies pressure to Denson's fiancee
Sandbagger One Willie Caine goes to Gibraltar to investigate the murder of an SIS agent, and potential new Sandbagger Laura Dickens goes to Morocco to get more clues in the case.
Dickens is assigned to find out where an Arab sheik's sympathies lie while Burnside clashes with Deputy Chief Matthew Peele and the Ministry of Defence over a covert scuba-diving operation.
Caine and an agent fresh out of field school go to Cyprus on the trail of some missing rocket scientists while Neil lets his romantic guard down at home.
Laura Dickens is the most qualified agent for a risky mission in East Berlin and Burnside has to double-deal to make sure her presence there won't pose other security risks as well.
The head of the Bulgarian Secret Service asks to meet with Sandbagger Tom Elliott in Sofia, but Burnside doesn't like it and intends to give Elliott backup whether his bosses approve or not.
Permanent Under-Secretary of State Sir Geoffrey Wellingham goes missing in Brussels and the Sandbaggers are dispatched to find him, for Burnside's sake as well as Wellingham's.
On an airline flight back from Sri Lanka, Caine and CIA covert-action agent Karen Milner run into trouble during their stop in Turkey, and Burnside runs into bureaucratic opposition when trying to help them.
Sandbagger Mike Wallace runs afoul of the local SIS station while on a risky mission in Warsaw, and Burnside risks his own career to show him support by sending him on a subsequent mission to Stockholm.
In the wake of the assassination of one U.S. senator, the Sandbaggers are assigned to bodyguard another, while Burnside gets wind of a traitor in the British cabinet.
When there's talk of getting a new 'C', Burnside decides to back Peele for the job, believing him more malleable than the other most likely candidate, whom Burnside once clashed with.
CIA Head of London Station Jeff Ross asks for Burnside's help when Ross' marriage is in trouble, but then Burnside starts to suspect that the KGB and MI5 have an interest in that marriage as well.
SIS Director of Intelligence Edward Tyler meets a suspicious woman while on holiday in Malta, so Burnside secretly sends the Sandbaggers to keep an eye on him.
'C' orders Burnside to go on a working holiday in Rhodes, and while he's gone, Ross asks Caine for some risky backup in the USSR, but as Acting D.Ops., Caine would have to send Wallace.
Burnside tries to get approval to plant a woman in the Soviet Union as a long-term double agent, but he neglects to mention that her real mission is short-term human rights propaganda.
When a British intelligence source is killed in an accident in Prague, Caine is sent in to find out what really happened while Wallace and Burnside look for clues at home.
When a rival for Burnside's job gets hold of a CIA document that describes Burnside as a divisive influence, SIS upper management contrives to promote Burnside ``sideways'' to Madrid.
Burnside is opposed to an East-West arms treaty being negotiated in Malta, so he and the Sandbaggers conspire to scuttle the talks by encouraging a Soviet double agent to defect.
A Candid Interview with Ray Lonnen and Bob Sherman about their time on the series
