In the mid-1980s, a simple number and letter designated a ward on the fifth floor of San Francisco General Hospital, the first in the country designed specifically to treat AIDS patients.

5B is the inspirational story of everyday heroes, the nurses and caregivers who took extraordinary action to comfort, protect, and care for the patients of the first AIDS ward unit in the United States. 5B is stirringly told through first-person testimony of these nurses and caregivers who built Ward 5B in 1983 at San Francisco General Hospital, their patients, loved ones, and staff who volunteered to create care practices based in humanity and holistic well-being during a time of great fear and uncertainty. The result is an uplifting yet candid and bittersweet monument to a pivotal moment in American history and a celebration of quiet heroes, nurses and caregivers worthy of remembrance and renewed recognition.

In the 1980s, a new disease ravaged the United States, specifically targeting the gay communities that had spent the decades prior demanding a place in mainstream society. Originally manifesting as an obscure form of cancer, it was eventually understood as an autoimmune disease and given a name: HIV/AIDS.

A nationwide panic followed, and those infected often found themselves subjected to violent abuse as discussion of the disease was inextricably bound up in discussions of homosexuality and homophobia itself. Compounded by the inaction of a federal government that refused to even publicly acknowledge the disease until almost 20,000 people had already died, the disease tore apart gay communities and left a tragic mark on the country that endures to this day. It was at once a national health crisis and a political firestorm that influenced the American discourse on topics as far-ranging as immigration, healthcare policy, and freedom of speech.

The heroes in the stories of people’s minds are not nurses.

5B upends that narrative by putting nurses front and center as the passionate protagonists who cared for the infirmed and defended the ostracized. At the dawn of the AIDS outbreak, when little was understood about the virus and its transmission, these brave nurses put their hearts and health on the line to create a safe space where patients felt seen and cared for. They did not cure the sick, at the time no one could, but their unwavering compassion and empathy in the darkest hours provided dignity and grace to society’s most vulnerable.

In the decades since the AIDS epidemic, much has been made of the activists on the social battlefront for acceptance and understanding. Yet there were other, quieter heroes on the frontlines of a humanitarian health crisis who touched lives and changed perceptions. 5B is their story.