Hanna is an unhappy adolescent in 1960s Quebec. Her mother, who is constantly ill, and her father, a Jewish-Polish immigrant, have a confusing love-hate relationship. Feeling isolated and somehow different from the other girls at her Catholic school, Hanna fixates on the beautiful character of Nana, as played by Anna Karina in Godard's "Vivre sa vie." When she finds that one of her teachers reminds her of the alluring Nana, she becomes fixated on the teacher while adopting the mannerisms and philosophy of the doomed heroine as her home life goes from bad to worse.