Destroying Angel relates two stories of illness and weaves them into a tapestry of family history, memory, and loss. The narrator, confronted with his own mortality, guides us through a landscape of recollections, dreams, close friendships, and family ties. Narratives about contemporary events interplay with lyrical recollections of the past. Eventually, just as the past always informs the present, the two styles of narrative begin to merge. In the end, we are left with a moving portrait of the struggles involved in dealing with AIDS, cancer, memory, and intimate relationships.