Unable to legally marry in 2006, Orin and Bernardo celebrate their longtime partnership by inviting family and friends to their ‘living funeral’ at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. An impressive marble monument is unveiled, inscribed with their achievement; ‘Two Hearts, Two Souls. Together in Life. Forever in Eternity.’

This all-consuming and symbolic event forces Orin and Bernardo to examine their lives in such a way that all aspects of who they are - both then and now, are revealed. They discuss what it was like growing up gay in 1950s and 1960s America and how it presented an extra set of challenges. It was their common quest to find their own identities that brought them both to Los Angeles, and ultimately to each other. After meeting in 1976 they experienced five years of an on-and-off again relationship.

As the status of gay rights in California pendulums drastically in 2008, the film follows Orin and Bernardo while they plan their wedding at the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills. On October 12, 2008 family and friends gather to celebrate the moment where at last, they have all the rights afforded other Americans. However, just 33 days later they must confront the upheaval caused by California's proposition 8.

Since that time, much has changed in the world, and with the film. An Ordinary Couple now includes an added epilogue that follows marriage equality in the United States and the recent Supreme Court ruling on same-sex marriage in June 2015. Bernardo and Orin recently entered their 40th year as partners and 8th year as a legally married couple. Their story is not distinctive in that it involves two men. Rather it is extraordinary that the relationship has flourished for over 40 years, that both men escaped the AIDS epidemic, and that they continue to make their relationship equal in a world where discrimination, opposition and misunderstanding exist.

In a country mired in politics, their story speaks volumes to the basic human need to be recognized, loved and respected.