Deep in the forests of the White Mountains, a wolf spider lies still in her web. As usual, she is looking up at the night sky, contemplating her existence in the quiet of the woods. But this night, she senses something fearful and wicked coming closer and closer, until she sees it in the moonlight: A gruesome wendigo, with strips of rancid flesh hanging off of its face and body.

Though the wendigo terrifies her to the core, she can sense there’s something more to him than pure malevolence. And there is: Once, he was a man. Cast out from his tribe for selfishness and greed, he was cursed to roam the forest eating carrion, wreaking destruction, and devouring even himself until the end of time.

Spider, herself a feared and venomous creature, pities him. She’s heard of a lake called Aziscohos that, legend has it, can undo such a curse. With the summer fading, she sets out with the wendigo to seek help from the red efts, young newts who are the pathfinders of the forest.

They lead Spider and the wendigo to a secret stream, a tributary of Lake Aziscohos. There, Spider immerses the wendigo in its cold rushing waters, reversing the dark magic that had imprisoned him.

Though he is redeemed, Spider must pay a price. Dying, she ascends into the sky in a great supernova, and becomes the Spider Nebula.