"The moon of the Singing Grass has come and gone three times and still there is no rain". Mishoo's prehistoric clan is starving; her little sister's arms are like twigs. Her mother, a Dream Catcher, once spoke with spirits. Now she is a spirit herself and tells a sleeping Mishoo: "You are Dream-Catcher. You must go to the cave of the She-Tiger".

There Mishoo discovers rock that comes alive with sliding shadows. Something stirs in her, and she begins to create images on the cave walls -- images of galloping horses, fighting rhinoceros, bison, and more. In each moment of inspiration she wonders, "Am I catching spirits or being caught myself?" Leaving the cave, she discovers clouds moving like mammoths across the sky. Her dream has caught; her clan is saved. But something more has happened in this imagined story of how the first cave paintings came to be. A young girl has become an artist.