Al Pacino (Roy Cohn), Meryl Streep (Hannah Pitt, Ethel Rosenberg, Rabbi Isador Chemelwitz, Angel of Australia), Emma Thompson (The Angel, Emily, Homeless Woman), Mary-Louise Parker (Harper Pitt), Jeffrey Wright (Belize, Mr. Lies), Justin Kirk (Prior Walter), Patrick Wilson (Joe Pitt), Ben Shenkman (Louis Ironson), James Cromwell (Roy’s Doctor), Michael Gambon (Prior’s Ancestor), Simon Callow (Prior’s Ancestor), Brian Markinson (Martin Heller), Robin Weigert (Mormon Mother), James Cromwell (Roy’s Doctor), Melissa Wilder (Louis’s Sister), David Zayas (Super), Fatima Da Silva (Cousin Doris), Flotilla Debarge (Singer in Church), Sterling Brown (Orderly), Florence Kastriner (Louis’ Mother), Lisa LeGuillou (Nurse), Howard Pinhasik (Louis’ Father), Shawn Bartels, Brian Dougherty, Mary Esbjornson, Barbara Fusco, Serafina Martino, Steven Edward Moore, Christopher Schuman, Reldalee Wagner, Matthew Yohn (Mennonite Choir Members)

Louis arrives at his apartment with a nervous Joe, who asks about Prior and his illness. Louis acknowledges Joe’s wedding ring, but gently seduces him all the same, talking about the emotional impact of smell and other senses. Prior awakens and calls Belize at work to tell him about his surprising reaction to the “dream” about the angel. Belize encounters Roy’s doctor, who tells him of Roy’s imminent emergency arrival. Belize notices that the file says “liver cancer,” and the doctor roughly orders him to go along with the lie. Roy is rude to Belize when he comes to care for him, demanding a white nurse instead and pontificating about politics and his own power; he then admits that he does not want to be alone. Belize, who is aware of Roy’s true illness and disgusted with his attitude, nonetheless gives him some important medical advice about treatments and medicinal trials, and Roy calls Martin Heller and demands his own private stash of AZT.

Harper grows disillusioned with her fantasy of Antarctica, realizing that she is cold and lonely, still missing Joe despite everything. Joe briefly appears to her as an Eskimo, saying that he is currently “having an adventure” of his own, and Harper is picked up by the police wandering in Prospect Park. Hannah finally arrives at Joe and Harper’s apartment and finds it empty. When the police call about Harper, she assures them that she is “just peculiar” before hurrying off to the station. Belize takes Prior to the lively funeral of a drag queen friend, though Prior, who is in a very bad mood, finds the colorful celebration “tacky.” He confesses to Belize that his vision of the angel was not a dream, recalling how she declared herself to be the “bird of America” and ordered him to dig up his kitchen to find “the sacred implements.” When he grudgingly obeyed, he found the holy book again, and his attempts to read it resulted in a bizarre, otherworldly sexual encounter between himself and the angel. She then explained to him about the “virus of time,” saying that human progress has shaken up heaven and caused God to leave, ordering him to “stop moving.” Belize, disturbed, guesses that Prior is symbolically dealing with feeling abandoned by Louis, telling him that there was no angel and that he must get a hold of himself.

After several weeks, Louis still has questions about Joe’s Mormon beliefs; when Joe tells him that he loves him, Louis assures him that he is merely infatuated. From his hospital bed, Roy fights against his impending disbarment and experiences highly painful cramps as Ethel watches passively. Belize is shocked to find Roy’s personal stash of AZT, angry that he is stockpiling the rare, expensive drug when so many others have need of it. They argue and hurl racial epithets at one another. Roy, impressed with Belize’s bluntness, allows him to take a bottle or two for his ill friends. He continues conversing with Ethel, who says that she intends to influence his disbarment committee as he influenced her trial, and Roy muses that America has “no use for the sick.”