The play focuses on the time Anne Frank and seven others spent in hiding from the Nazis in an attic in Amsterdam from 1942 to 1944, as chronicled in her diary. The play is divided into two acts with flashbacks depicting their time in hiding, with the beginning and ending scenes taking place in 1945 after the war when Otto Frank returns from Auschwitz. It features Anne, her family, the Van Daans and their son, Mr. Dussel, and the two helpers Miep Gies and Mr. Kraler who helped hide and sustain them.