In an imaginary Portuguese colony on the south coast of China a beautiful Australian woman gradually achieves her own freedom and integrity through her relationships with four men: her indifferent English husband, her deeply sensual Eurasian lover, an expatriate Hong Kong homosexual dropout and an aged Chinese millionaire. The interplay of personalities is woven into the social and political fabric of a splendid antique city which itself provides the gateway for all the characters to a deeper level of reality: the Purple City, the mystical city which is hidden in all of us. The story mirrors the fusion of Latin and Chinese elements which has typified the Portuguese presence in China and provides insights into the emotional lives of a variety of people when east and west meet. Though a novel in the Western sense it also employs features of Chinese classical fiction in terms of intriguing subplots, use of dreams and poetry and scenes of heightened reality. Annals of the Purple City, with its rich erotic, political and mystical undertones, will appeal to all with interest in the intersection of the Asian and Western worlds.