XVII International AIDS Conference in Mexico City. Interview with three pioneers in the HIV/AIDS response - Dr Mervyn Silverman, Dr Paul Volberding, and Dr Lars Olof Kallings. They talk about the history of the AIDS movement.

This film tells the US story of the AIDS epidemic starting in the early 1980's. Scientists and activists, both pioneers and youths of today, talk about research, prevention, treatment and care. They also discuss stigma, homophobia and poverty as closely related to HIV and AIDS.

This production was made as the opening film for the IV International AIDS Conference in Stockholm in June 1988. It gives a broad representation of the global AIDS situation in the late 1980's, and has a particular focus on social structures, poverty and stigma.

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.