Sten Vermund from University of Alabama reflects on the history of the global AIDS epidemic and his involvement in the field as a young scientist in the 80's. He discusses the social and economic factors of HIV/AIDS, such as stigma, poverty and the drug industry.

Annual HIV research conference arranged by IHV. Dr Robert Gallo holds a lecture on the history of medical research on human retroviruses. He also talks about the early discoveries of t-cell leukemia in Japanese patients, which led to the discovery of HTLV-1.

David Klatzmann is a french immunologist who has been working in an AIDS group in France since 1981. He talks about the discoveries that CD4-antigens function as receptors for the HIV virus and explains the structure of this relationship in detail.

Luc Montagnier talks about the complex virology of HIV which makes the AIDS vaccine development so difficult. He also talks about the economic and cultural advantages of using traditional medicine as a part of the ARV therapy in developing countries.

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.

The primary focus of this documentary is on the history of how the AIDS epidemic started in San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York in 1981. Many different stories are told about people affected or surrounded by HIV and AIDS in the early years of the epidemic.

Quarraisha Abdool Karim is an epidemiologist in Durban. She talks about the start of the South African AIDS epidemic and the South African AIDS response, health policies and campaigns. She explains why women are more susceptible to HIV than men are.

Jonathan Mann, was a US medical doctor and influential within the World Health Organization (WHO). Here he talks about the global understanding of the disease between 1981 and 1988.

Nobel Prize Laureate Luc Montagnier answers questions on the origin of HIV, the spreading of the virus, prevention, and the possibility of a vaccine.