It's 1985, Ronald Reagan is president, and AIDS is hitting the gay community. Prior Walton tells his beloved Lou, whom he has been with for 4 years, that he is ill. Lou leaves Prior. However, the sicker and lonely Prior becomes, the more Lou regrets his decision. During a night of hallucinations, Prior is visited by an angel who invites him to become a prophet of death. Somewhere further along in Manhattan, Joe Pitt, a lawyer who is both Mormon and Republican, is forced by right-wing Roy Cohn to take a job with the Department of Justice. Both Pitt and Cohn have secrets they would rather not reveal, Pitt because of shame and his faith and Cohn because he wants to keep his power.