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.

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.

Dr Selma Dritz tells the story of how the AIDS epidemic started in Los Angeles and San Francisco in the early 80's and how AIDS was connected to the gay liberation movement. She also talks about the government and community responses at that time.

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.