A gang of punks goes on a crime spree, committing muggings, break-ins and burglaries, all in the name of "the Sybarite". Afterward, they are picked up by limousines, and whisked away.

The next day, Jessica Drew visits her friend Lindsay McCabe, who is disappointed by a failed audition. Her spirits lift when she talks of a party she plans to attend that night, one thrown by the Sybarite. In the evening, they go their separate ways, Jessica changing into her Spider-Woman outfit and heading out on patrol. Witnessing with disdain the negative effect of drugs on the streets, she muscles her way up the chain of users and dealers, till she's led to a recently arrived shipment. The smugglers try to beat her, but she fends them off easily, unitl one of them injects her with something and she passes out.

When she comes to, she is the party of the Sybarite, who turns out to be Gypsy Moth, surrounded by her drugged-out sycophants. When Jessica sees Lindsay has been drugged by spiked punch, the conflict between the two erupts, Spider-Woman trying to stun her foe with venom blasts, and Gypsy Moth using her ability to manipulate fibers to throw Spider-Woman about the room. Mentally controlling her opponent's hair, the Moth submerges Spider-Woman below the surface of a pool of water, while her past flashes through her mind: she was born in the Balkans as Sybil Dvorak where she discovered her control over fibrous materials. A failed love affair with an actor inspired her to become Gypsy Moth and gather her followers.

By tearing her hair, Spider-Woman frees herself, and decks Gypsy Moth. As if released from a spell, her guests begin to sober up, and gyspsy moth unexpectedly vanishes. Spider-Woman takes Lindsay to a hospital for treatment, then checks in on Jack Russell. Compassionately, she tells Jack, who is chained up as he transforms into the Werewolf, that she'll stay through the night with him.