During the 1980s, a group of gay men and their straight female friends confront the spread of AIDS. Personal trainer Willy (Campbell Scott) watches the epidemic grow, advocating for awareness. Willy's friend John (Dermot Mulroney) is the first to be infected, but soon it becomes clear that a pandemic is underway in the gay community. Willy, boyfriend Fuzzy (Stephen Caffrey), and his adopted sister, Lisa (Mary-Louise Parker), look on as their friends and loved ones succumb to the disease. Concentrating on the personal side of the epidemic, Longtime Companion was praised as one of the first films to present a realistic, sympathetic treatment of AIDS victims.