The movie opens with a series of flashbacks to some of Peter's happiest moments with Gwen. One such flashback goes like this, set after Peter and Gwen swung off together in the first movie (It is an extended form of a deleted scene):

Peter and Gwen sat at the top of a clock tower, the clock reading 12:15. They kissed.

"I don't think I'm ready to do this." said Gwen, "I mean, I think we're still too young."

"Yeah, maybe you're right." said Peter, "And this'd be nice either way, what with your dad not liking me that much I'd cherish any moment with you."

A few years passed since the fiasco with the symbiote and Gwen Stacy's death. But Peter's life has settled itself some. He's happily married and his former arch nemesis, Venom, no longer plans to kill him. At this point in his life all he has to worry about is whether or not his wife will get the part in the play for which she's auditioning as he sits in the lobby.

On the stage, MJ was trying really hard to get the audition scene right.

"Then he reached over," she said, "and put his hand on my arm, and I said to him... I said 'Why are you touching me like that? Why are you looking at me like that? Don't you have anything better to do with your time?' Well, he looked at me, and when he looked at me-"

"Mary Jane-" said the director.

"-I just knew this would be-"

"Mary Jane-"

"Yes?"

"Stop acting."

"I don't-"

"It's very simple. I said stop acting. Now try it again." MJ repeated the scene.

"Then he reached over," she said, "and put his hand on my arm, and I said to him... I said 'Why are you touching me like that? Why are you looking at me like that? Don't you have anything better to do with your time?' Well, he looked at me, and when he looked at me-"

"Thank you," said the director, "that'll do."

"Thank you." said MJ.

"Mary Jane, wait." said the director as he got up and approached the stage.

"I told you to stop acting."

"Yeah, well, believe me, you're not the first to suggest that."

"That's not what I mean. I meant stop acting."

"But isn't that-"

"You've got two people on the dance floor. At one end you've got Fred Astaire, at the other end a guy who just got out of dance school. You watch the guy and you can see him going 'one-two-three' in his head, over and over. He's trying to dance. Then you look at Fred Astaire... and he's just dancing. There's trying to dance, and there's dancing. Stop trying to act. Just... tell the truth." He went back to his seat, "Now try again."

"Then he reached over," she said, "and put his hand on my arm, and I said to him... I said 'Why are you touching me like that? Why are you looking at me like that? Don't you have anything better to do with your time?' Well, he looked at me, and when he looked at me, I just... I just knew, that's all. The way we all know, you know? When you see... when you see the eyes you want to wake up next to every day for the rest of your life."

"Mary Jane?" said the director.

"Yeah?"

"What are you thinking about right now?"

"My husband and how much I love him. He's sitting out in the lobby, waiting for me."

"So all you did was tell the truth about him, about how you feel about him?"

"Yes."

"That's all you ever have to do, Mary Jane. Just take the stage, face the lights, and tell the truth."

"Thank you for that. I just... I think I just learned more than I got out of the fifteen acting classes I took. Well, I should probably let you-"

"Just... one last thing, before you go."

Back in the lobby, Peter heard the sound of MJ's sneakers on the floor.

"How'd it go, MJ?" said Peter. MJ didn't answer.

"Aw, jeez, MJ," he said, "It's okay. Look it's a growing experience, right? You know, the whole trial and error thing, and then you get the whole trial and conviction thing, the appeal-"

"No, Peter," said MJ, "it's... I got the part."

"You got the part?"

"I got the part."

"You got the part!"

"I got the part! I got the part! I love you!"

Back at their relatively new home (They've had it for a couple years) MJ told Peter about the whole audition.

"And he keeps saying 'Stop acting.'" said MJ, "And I thought 'Boy, don't I hear enough of that.' But he was right, he was so right. Once I got it, I mean really got it, it just seemed so simple. I just had to learn to get out of my own way I-" MJ was cut off the the mailman arriving.

"I'll get it." Peter said. He went to the door and picked up the letters from the floor beneath the mail slot. But the first letter on the stack had a return address saying "Gwen Stacy, C/O Rue Andres Hotel, 1516 Rue Andres, Paris France" Peter was shocked, for Gwen had died years ago.

That night, Peter's hands were shaking as he opened the envelope addressed from Gwen.

It said "Dear Peter-

I know you were kind of surprised when I took off for Europe so suddenly four months ago, but I needed some time to think things over. I know you're probably thinking 'What things?' Something's happened Peter. Something I didn't expect. Something I didn't plan for. Something...

Dear God, Peter. I don't know what to do, how to tell you this. I'm so afraid that when I tell you, you'll hate me, never want to see me again. I've written this letter six times, but I never seem to find the right words.

And for what I'm about to tell you Peter, I'm sorry. I am so sorry. I can only hope you'll forgive me." With that, the page ended, but there were no more pages in the envelope.

Peter stood behind the house, thinking about the letter. Suddenly MJ walked out.

"You okay?" she said.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm okay." Peter replied.

"Okay, let's try this again, and this time, leave out half of the lie. Are you okay?"

"In that case, not so good."

"Are you sure it's really from her? There's always the chance-"

"No. I checked the handwriting against some of the letters I still had from her, but that was just a formality. I'd know her handwriting anywhere, and the way she chose her words. It's her."

"What did it say?"

"She was saying she did something awful, she made it sound like she thought it was unforgivable. But the one page I got didn't say what it was. It stops just as she was about to tell me about whatever the hell was so awful, so terrible that- I don't get it, MJ, I just don't get it. It was a crazy time in my life. Gwen had gone on vacation without any warning, and that was when I got the black suit as well. Right in the middle of it all, I ended up in a war with the Green Goblin and barely got out with my skin."

"Something I don't understand... she obviously wrote this while she was still in France, if it was something that bad, why didn't she tell you about it when she came back?"

"I guess there wasn't time. When she got back, she had a lot of work to do, then Harry OD'd, and then..." (Flashes back to the scene from 3 where Gwen was killed), "...she was gone."

"It's just so bizarre. I mean, I've heard of the post office discovering lost letters and delivering them years later, but-"

"Yeah, so have I. There are just a few small problems. Problem number one: She never would've sent just that one page. Not even by accident. There would have been more. She probably sat up all night writing, the way she sometimes did, finished the letter, addressed the envelope, and put it away somewhere while she decided whether or not to send it. Problem number two: The stamp's current. And problem number three, the postmark." He showed it to MJ.

It said "New York City PM, June 23, 2023."

"My god!" said MJ.

"Someone's messing with me, MJ." said Peter, "Not with Spider-Man, but with me."

"But why? Who'd want to do something like this?"

"I don't know. All I do know is that something was wrong with Gwen that I never knew about. Something so terrible she thought she could never tell me. And now someone is using her pain to try and get to me. And I don't take very well to that. As Spider-man, there's a lot I have to swallow, and accept, and deal with, because that's the nature of the beast, an awful lot. And at the end of the day, I have to let it go, so I can come home to you whole and at least a little sane. But there are some things in my life that you just don't touch if you want to walk away with your spine intact. You're one of them, first, foremost and forever. This... is another."

That night, Peter couldn't sleep. He hated this situation, not just for him, but for MJ, who slept next to him. She had such wonderful news that day, and then this had to happen.

They say you should never talk about old girlfriends in front of your wife. He thought, But how many times has Gwen's memory, her importance in my life, come up at us? Any other woman would've told me to take a hike years ago. But MJ's never complained. Not once. Maybe because she knew Gwen, and was also her friend. And maybe it's because she loves me. I don't deserve her. But I try, every day, to make up for it. The shot changed to show that Peter was gone, Somehow, it's never enough.