Ned Marriner is a fifteen year old boy spending his summer in Provence while his father, a famous photographer, is taking pictures for a coffee table book. While his father is taking pictures of the cathedral in Aix, Ned meets Kate Wenger, and American teenager studying in Aix. Together, they discover a hidden crypt and meet a mysterious and dangerous stranger who will awaken, unbeknownst to Ned, strange powers in the boy.

After this encounter, Ned becomes embroiled in a two thousand, six hundred year old story that features Celts, Gauls, and the deadly choice a woman, Ysabel, made then.

Ysabel is a disappointing book that is more a history and geography lesson than a story. After the the grandiose epic of the Sarantine Mosaic, this book is shallow and light of story. It became obvious, early in the book, that Kay spent some time in Provence and decided he was going to write a story in that setting, which, again, is what dominates the book. His choice of protagonist --a teenage boy-- was also surprising, and made it difficult to relate. The ending is also disappointing, and almost a cliché.

All in all, Guy Gavriel Kay just doesn't do modern well.

Synopsis
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. Accompanying his photographer father to the celebrated city of Aix-en-Provence, near Marseilles, 15-year-old Ned Marriner 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 seem 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 ...