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.

Flossie Wong-Staal is an American Molecular Biologist who has been influencial in the HIV/AIDS research since the start of the US AIDS epidemic. She is known as the first scientist to clone HIV. In this interview she talks about the work on HIV gene therapy.

Joep Lange discusses his views on antiretroviral drugs, both in the developing and the developed world, future improvements of HIV drugs and treatment, and a possible vaccine.

José Esparza is a scientist who has been working many years at WHO and within UNAIDS. He has been known for his work on HIV vaccines. Here he talks about vaccine trials and the future development of vaccines for developing and developed countries.

Robin Weiss, a British Molecular Biologist and Professor of Viral Oncology at University College London, talks about the scientific contribution of small countries like Sweden, interdisciplinary collaborations in HIV research and HIV vaccines.

Geoffrey Schild, Virologist and Director of the National Institute for Biological Standards and Control (NIBSC), talks about the Swedish contributions to AIDS research and collaboration with funding agencies such as Nutek, and reflects on HIV vaccines.

Dr George Galasso is working on HIV vaccines at NIAID. Here he talks about the scientific challenges of HIV/AIDS and the chances of developing a vaccine. He believes that one of the main focuses in HIV/AIDS research still is to find treatment for opportunistic infections.