As mysterious ailments evolve into an insidious scourge, friendship ignites into passion against the backdrop of a contagion. San Francisco nurse Marthe Souza stands on the front line while her bisexual boyfriend, author Kell Vander Kellen, records the plague's rampage. When Kell's sexual proclivities threaten their relationship, Marthe turns to other passions, Jesus Christ and the music of Patsy Cline, but soon she too seeks corporeal comforts.

Set over a span of thirty years, the non-linear narrative involves Marthe and Kell's families, Catholic clans long-wracked with temptation and misunderstandings. Marthe battles work as well as the personal conflict she and Kell wage, other lovers never far from their beds. After a break-up occurs, Marthe's faith sustains her, but when Kell returns to Marthe's realm HIV-positive, the couple faces more than his illness. In his final manuscript, Kell wishes to capture not only their history, but that of the pandemic, intolerance and fear amid steadfast devotion.