Gosamyr was a member of an alien race, who was in the larval stage of her life cycle. Through her brother's failure to fulfill a business obligation, Gosamyr's clan including herself, became legal property of Spyder, who was an entrepreneur that headed an intergalactic network called the Webb. Spyder kept Gosamyr with his as his personal slave; however, he imprisoned her relatives, forcing them to advance prematurely from their larval humanoid state into their next stage of development, in which they wound create gigantic cocoons around themselves.
The mutant Lila Cheney had been sold into slavery to beings who thereafter forfeited their ownership of her to Spyder, who had financed her purchaser. Cheney had escaped her owners and was living in freedom on the Earth. Spyder sent his agents to Earth to capture Cheney, whom he considered to be his property. Gosamyr hid aboard the starship, hoping to escape from Spyder, and free her imprisoned family from Spyder's clutches. She managed to slip by Spyder's agents and flee the starship on a small "space yacht."
Gosamyr encountered the New Mutants, who were friends of Cheney and solicited their assistance in rescuing her family. The New Mutants accompanied Gosamyr into outer space aboard the space yacht, hoping to rescue Cheney who had been captured by Spyder's agents.
