Tom Hanks, in his Academy Award-winning performance, stars as Andrew Beckett, a successful attorney at a prestigious law firm, who is suddenly fired from his job. The official reason is incompetence, but Andrew suspects the real motive is the fact that he is gay and suffering from the AIDS virus. Andrew decides to fight back, hiring a lawyer of his own, Joe Miller, who must overcome his own homophobic tendencies in order to win his client's wrongful termination suit.