This film is about the global AIDS situation. The film starts in Europe and the United States and ends up in Zimbabwe and Uganda. It tells about the global disparities of drug access, but also about the successful HIV and AIDS responses of Thailand, Cambodia and Uganda.

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.

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.