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.