Dr. Oleske was the first U.S. physician to diagnose AIDS in children during the epidemic's early years when it was widely thought to be spread only though homosexual sex.
Most of his patients are impoverished inner city African Americans and Hispanics who are either intravenous drug users or the heterosexual partners thereof.
His efforts to convince the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) that AIDS is the cause of this threat falls on largely deaf and hesitant ears, while another doctor asks him about whether or not Bible belt politicians will enjoy having to tell their voters that their taxes are being spent on homosexuals and I.V.
TV reporters appear in the hospital wearing disposable latex gloves, surgical clothes and masks, afraid of becoming infected by being in the same room or building with Oleske and his AIDS patients.
In 1984, when it's announced that the virus that causes AIDS has been isolated, another one of his child patients dies of AIDS and is buried in a Gospel music style funeral that Oleske attends, and Oleske finally receives approval of his work from the CDC and promises to continue his work among his patients, even though they will eventually die young.