Marc Girard who is the general director of the Mérieux Foundation, talks about Cent Gardes and the collaboration between France and the USA, mainly represented by the Pasteur Institute and NIH, and about why HIV is such a complicated virus to find a vaccine for.

Dr Robert C Gallo talks about the importance of yearly AIDS congresses. He also talks about the scientific community before and during the AIDS epidemic, and puts the disease outbreak into a sociological context.

Opening of the Cent Gardes Conference in Annecy in 2002. Speeches by the Director of Fondation Mérieux, Alain Mérieux, and participants from other institutions working on HIV vaccines. The film maker Staffan Hildebrand holds a speech about Face of AIDS.