Taking place in the mid 1980s, As Is sketches the lives of Rich and Saul, a New York couple who have recently broken up. Rich, a writer who has just published a collection of short stories, has gone off to live with a new lover named Chet. Saul, a photographer, is still living at the old apartment and still in love with Rich. As Is explores the effect that AIDS, a relatively new epidemic in the 1980s, has on a group of friends living in NYC.​