In mid 1980s Texas, electrician Ron Woodroof is starting to learn that he has AIDS. Though told he has just 30 days left to live, Woodroof refuses to give in to despair. He seeks out alternative therapies and smuggles approved drugs into the US from where ever he can find them. Woodroof joins forces with a fellow AIDS patient and begins selling the treatments to the growing number of people who can't wait for the medical establishment to save them.