The Normal Heart is a 2014 gay movie about the 1980s AIDS epidemic among the gay community in New York. Ned Weeks attends Craig's birthday party at an Island along the beach. Craig is has not been feeling well and he faints on the beach as he walks. Later during cake cutting he can barely blow the candles because of a cough. Ned is a gay writer and reserved in his sexual life which keeps him away from other gay people on the island who are having a lot of casual sex.
Ned reads about a rare cancer diagnosed among 41 homosexuals in the newspaper as he heads out of the island in a boat. He pays a visit to Doctor Emma Brookner to ask about the gay disease. Dr. Emma orders him to remove his clothes so she can check if he is also infected. She cannot find any signs with Ned. Emma wants Ned to mobilize fellow gay men to raise awareness about the disease. Ned does not agree with her but as they converse Craig is brought in sick and dies. Emma recognizes one of the gay men that brought in Craig as the boyfriend of another man who died weeks before from the disease.Ned calls fellow gay men to his house for a meeting. During the meeting Dr. Emma asks them to abstain from sex because the disease is speculated to be sexually transmitted. They refuse to side with that opinion. Ned visits Felix Turner of the New York Times to try and persuade him to raise awareness through their newspaper. Felix is gay but reluctant the New York Times will be willing. Ned ends up trying to raise money through another newspaper called the New York Native. He also tries to get his brother offer free legal assistance including financial since he is the senior partner is a big law firm. The brother is adamant. The deaths from the disease continue rising. At the hospital where Dr. Emma works they have opened a wing described as a contagion area for the Gay Related Immunodeficiency Disease(GRID). The staff in the hospital refuse to attend to the sick homosexuals for fear of contamination.
Felix visits Ned and reminds him they met before at a gay sex club. They grow closer and eventually make love. Ned tries to approach the Mayor about the disease but security blocks him. Ned and fellow gay men for an organization called Gay Men Health Crisis to deal with the epidemic. Ned's aggressive and abrasive way of doing things in the organization is not appreciated by the rest and they do not vote him president. Bruce gets the presidency. At a gay party by GMHC they announce that they have managed to collect 53000$.
Ned eventually asks Felix Turner to move in with him. Felix goes on live TV accusing the government of neglecting gay people and having a conspiracy to get them dead. The GMHC member as furious claiming he is talking on behalf of the group. Ned and Bruce get into a fight when the former exposes him to a visiting TV crew at their new offices.
Felix eventually reveals to Ned that he was once married and had a son. He also shows Ned a Kaposi Sarcoma tumor on his foot which will not go away. Ned tells Doctor Emma about he and she asks to see Felix. Dr. Emma also reveals that she got crippled by polio as a child and that is why she is on wheel chair.
Felix gets worse to the point of messing his bed. His body is covered with Kaposi Sarcoma lesions when he visits the hospital. He is told to stay over for observation.
Doctor Emma is still struggling to get funding towards the gay cancer but government officials do not take her seriously and refuse. Ned creates some attention and gets an invitation to see a White House presidential adviser. They however disagree because the adviser thinks the disease is only among homosexuals. Ned gets furious.
Ned is eventually kicked out as a member of GMHC citing his exploitation of fear and death of gay men.
Felix gets worse and decides to visit the offices of Ned's brother the lawyer to leave a will. He faints on his way out and Ned's brother takes him to hospital where he later passes away after their bedside wedding with Ned presided over by Doctor Emma Brookner. Bruce also later dies from the disease which is later discovered to be AIDS.