The Heretic's Song

Connesste is a world dominated by music -- every social ritual, every public event, every lesson in the schools, are all conducted through Sings - strict musical rituals. Most of these ritual "Sings" are accompanied by the sacred bead-harp, made from strings of local crystals.
Sara Camfir has been branded a heretic by her culture for lay use of these sacred crystals in her healing practice. She defied her teacher and her culture when she quit the ritual Healing lessons, and went to join the SongMakers to practice their heretical form of healing.
When Sara returns home for a ritualistic festival which occurs every fourteen years, those who wish to discredit her and her healing group, the SongMakers, attempt to frame her for two murders. Sara must deal with the disapproval of her family for her heresy as well as pressure from her former lover, while her parents race to discover the cause of a growing planetary ecological crisis, and she tries to solve the two murders and save the SongMaker's reputation.