In 1875, Ahkah, a 9-year-old Comanche girl, is the only child in a group of 72 Plains Indians brought to the Castillo de San Marcos in St. Augustine for "re-education." Callie Crump, a 14-year-old who has never so much as seen an Indian, begins to teach art classes to the prisoners. At first she is reluctant, but it doesn't take long before she finds herself fascinated by the lives of the Native Americans at the fort. All the while, Akhah longs to return home, but finds comfort in learning an old skill, making bows and arrows to sell to tourists. Paintbrushes and Arrows follows the lives of these two girls and their crafts, which bring them closer together than either could ever have guessed.