Amid the ruins and vineyards of Provence, a centuries-old mystery unfolds.
"Everyone comes from somewhere else..."
Provence, in the south of France, is one of those parts of the world that can truly be called a paradise. But history teaches us that paradises are coveted, and fought over, and those sun-dappled vineyards and river valleys have also seen millennia of invasions and violence, strangers coming time after time to lay claim to it.
Ned Marriner is spending six weeks with his photographer father in France, in the city of Aix-en-Provence, near Marseilles. While exploring the cathedral, Ned encounters Kate Wenger, and American exchange student with a deep knowledge of the area's history. But even Kate is at a loss when she and Ned suprise a scar-faced stranger, carrying a knife, deep inside the cathedral. "I think you ought to go now," he tells them. "You have blundered into the corner of a very old story..."
Fifteen-year-old Ned finds himself drawn into a centuries-old battle as dangerous, mythic figures from the Celtic and Roman conflicts of long ago erupt into the present, claiming and changing lives. The larger-than-life figures of a 2,500-year-old romantic triangle seen to be in the world again, and Ned and his family and friends are shockingly drawn into their tale on one night when the borders between the living and the dead are blurred, and fires are lit upon the hills...