Having been raised as a devout Catholic in a small, provincial Austrian town in the late 60s, Johanna becomes Hanna when she learns from her grandmother that she is actually Jewish. While Hanna's mother - still traumatized by her harrowing experience during the war - has done all she could to keep the family's Jewish origin a secret, Hanna defies the town people's dormant yet strongly felt anti-Semitism and celebrates her new identity.