Dr. Jack Kevorkian (Al Pacino) is well known today as a champion of assisted suicide for terminally ill patients, but his career began without that fame. As a one time pathologist, the doctor who became known as Dr. Death, begins offering death counseling services with the help of his friend Neal Nicol (John Goodman) and sister Margo Janus (Brenda Vaccaro). He quickly gains a following, with people on his side such as Hemlock Society activist Janet Good (Susan Sarandon), and attorney Geoffrey Fieger (Danny Huston). Of course he also earns a lot of negative attention and repeated attempts to prosecute him for his efforts, but Fieger manages to keep him clean and allow him the opportunity to work towards changing laws about the right to die.