An Imperfect Spy deals with issues centering on the abuse and neglect of women. More specifically, it deals with spousal battery and abuse, the rights of women in the workplace, and with the invisibility of aging women.

When Kate and Reed agree to teach a semester at the second-rate Schuyler Law School, they meet Harriet, a secretary who tells them she is patterning her life after George Smiley, a character created by mystery writer John le Carre. Kate becomes involved in solving two mysteries: the death of Nellie Rosenbusch, the only tenured female faculty member at Schuyler, and the case of Betty Osborne who was convicted and sent to Staten Island for murdering her husband in his sleep before anyone knew anything about battered-women's syndrome.

Another issue is society's perceptions of women. Harriet is an aging women who is able to pass almost without notice into...