In the Austrian provincial town, Wels, we meet nine-year-old Johanna, a good Catholic girl growing up in the late 1960s. When her blind grandmother, Ruth, tells her the secret about their Jewish past, the “sleeping dogs” of the family history awake. The older townspeople know exactly which neighbors were the very worst Nazis before reinventing themselves as devout Catholics. Johanna, however, is determined not to hide. She wants to be proud of her heritage and changes her name to Hanna. But little does she know, the "sleeping dogs" are now awake, starting to bark, and still have their teeth.