As a mother and housewife, Karen Barrett believes herself to be happy in her insulated life with her son and husband. When she meets the murderer David Jackson, however, she begins to feel the strain of her limited life. In her desire to recapture the life she fears she has lost, Karen initiates an affair with David. Karen's pursuit of David is nothing less than her search for freedom and a meaningful destiny, and she quickly learns that such an affair must be more than a dalliance. In A Deep Purple Falls, Patricia Khazaeli tests the limits of the human potential for freedom. Karen's affair cannot be ended until she discovers the deepest portals of the psyche that, once opened, are difficult to close.