Set in 1985, it is the real life story of a Dallas electrician Ron Woodroof (Matthew McConaughey) who leads a reckless life. After a minor work accident at work, he lands up in a hospital, where a blood test reveals that he is infected with the HIV virus and is told that he would live for a maximum 30 days.
Shattered with this revelation, he responds violently with loathing bitterness to doctors Sevard (Denis O'Hare) and Eve Saks (Jennifer Garner), interpreting their diagnosis as an insult to his unrestrained heterosexual virility.
Shunned and ostracized by many of his old friends, he parties hard with hookers and drugs, weakening his immune system even further, until he develops AIDS.
Being a go-getter, he first bribes a hospital janitor to slip him a supply of AZT, the only medication that was being trial-tested at that time by the FDA.
