Exploring the AIDS crisis from both a personal and a political perspective, the film intertwines two main motifs: memories of Roger Jacoby, a filmmaker who died of AIDS, and the development of a mass response to AIDS. The collective response begins with mourning at a candlelight vigil and the deep sadness of the AIDS Quilt and then progresses toward a much more determined reaction by ACT-UP: first, in the Gay Pride March in New York City, then in separate demonstrations that build in militancy – with a corresponding increasingly heavy-handed response by the police – culminating in a demonstration during a baseball game and the thumbs-up sign of a teenager sporting a Silence = Death button.