Growing up Catholic together on Long Island, NY, shy, free-spirited Lorraine DeVico and outgoing, traditionalist Suzanne Tierney are inseparable. Their friendship endures Lorraine's crisis of faith at sixteen and the divisive Vietnam years. But, in college they choose different paths. Lorraine travels to France where she meets Larbi El Maghrebi, a charming Moroccan student with whom she falls deeply in love. Embarking on an odyssey of faith and love, she follows Larbi to his Moslem country to make her home in his world. Hit with a "double whammy" on arrival, she must adjust once again to life in a strange land as well as to life as part of a "mixed couple." Years later, when tragedy strikes, it is Suzanne who takes up the journey, traveling to her friend's adopted home for the first time. She arrives though with a hidden agenda - she wants to take Lorraine's child back home with her. With all the talk nowadays of a "clash of civilizations," The Strings of the Lute takes a look at "the little picture." At ordinary people - of totally different backgrounds, cultures, and religions - dealing with some of the extraordinary issues of our time.