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Shilts struggles to overcome obstacles from being an openly gay reporter as his job at KQED officially comes to an end. Jobless again with no prospects in view, Shilts falls into a hole of drinking and marijuana use. Going back to freelance writing jobs to survive, Shilts’s coverage of the assassination of Milk and Moscone draws the attention of New York City editors who ask him to write up a proposal for a biography of Milk. Shilts undertakes well-researched and positively reviewed book on Milk’s life. Shilts’s work on the Milk bio also takes in important aspects of the growing gay community in San Francisco. Shilts embraces a “new journalism” writing style he admires from novelist James Michener.

Shilts finally addresses his addiction to alcohol and marijuana, including in-patient rehabilitation and Alcoholics Anonymous. Shilts grapples with the death of his friend Gary Walsh from AIDS, and the unexpected death of his mother. Shilts offers a first-person account of physical abuse he suffered as a child for an anthology edited by actor Suzanne Somers. Shilts is passed over for inclusion in the documentary version on the life of Harvey Milk, while rights sold to his Milk bio languish and a film is never produced.

One of Shilts’s last interviews, with Steve Kroft from CBS’ 60 Minutes, considers his breakthrough role as a gay journalist. Shilts’s future plans for a book about alleged sexual abuse inside the Catholic Church, and his desire for a national column are revealed. Shilts’s last interviews and written words reflect the fleeting nature of his life as he attempts to promote his final book, Conduct Unbecoming. Shilts’s health continues to deteriorate until he dies at his Guerneville, California home on February 17, 1994. Shilts’s death wins nationwide notice and his funeral becomes the first-ever picketed by members of the controversial Westboro Baptist Church. Shilts’s friends, colleagues and his partner, Barry Barbieri, offer insight into his last months of life.

Timing played a key role in all of Shilts’s success, and failures. His reporting and books on cutting-edge issues in the emerging gay liberation movement withstood strong push back on his work while establishing himself as an openly gay reporter in mainstream journalism. Shilts unapologetically approached his reporting as he had approached his earlier life – that information granted power and understanding and journalists played a key role in conveying that information. Important questions remain about whether Shilts helped or hindered the understanding of AIDS in the context of the gay community, with serious reservations raised about his use of the “Patient Zero” posit. He was praised, however, for advocacy for gay rights via Conduct Unbecoming.