diff --git a/components/style/atomic_refcell.rs b/components/style/atomic_refcell.rs
index ee6771bc527..fa6c76bfde6 100644
--- a/components/style/atomic_refcell.rs
+++ b/components/style/atomic_refcell.rs
@@ -2,121 +2,345 @@
  * License, v. 2.0. If a copy of the MPL was not distributed with this
  * file, You can obtain one at http://mozilla.org/MPL/2.0/. */
 
-#![allow(unsafe_code)]
+//! Implements a container type providing RefCell-like semantics for objects
+//! shared across threads.
+//!
+//! RwLock is traditionally considered to be the |Sync| analogue of RefCell.
+//! However, for consumers that can guarantee that they will never mutably
+//! borrow the contents concurrently with immutable borrows, an RwLock is
+//! overkill, and has key disadvantages:
+//! * Performance: Even the fastest existing implementation of RwLock (that of
+//!   parking_lot) performs at least two atomic operations during immutable
+//!   borrows. This makes mutable borrows significantly cheaper than immutable
+//!   borrows, leading to weird incentives when writing performance-critical
+//!   code.
+//! * Features: Implementing AtomicRefCell on top of RwLock makes it impossible
+//!   to implement useful things like AtomicRef{,Mut}::map.
+//!
+//! As such, we re-implement RefCell semantics from scratch with a single atomic
+//! reference count. The primary complication of this scheme relates to keeping
+//! things in a consistent state when one thread performs an illegal borrow and
+//! panics. Since an AtomicRefCell can be accessed by multiple threads, and since
+//! panics are recoverable, we need to ensure that an illegal (panicking) access by
+//! one thread does not lead to undefined behavior on other, still-running threads.
+//!
+//! So we represent things as follows:
+//! * Any value with the high bit set (so half the total refcount space) indicates
+//!   a mutable borrow.
+//! * Mutable borrows perform an atomic compare-and-swap, swapping in the high bit
+//!   if the current value is zero. If the current value is non-zero, the thread
+//!   panics and the value is left undisturbed.
+//! * Immutable borrows perform an atomic increment. If the new value has the high
+//!   bit set, the thread panics. The incremented refcount is left as-is, since it
+//!   still represents a valid mutable borrow. When the mutable borrow is released,
+//!   the refcount is set unconditionally to zero, clearing any stray increments by
+//!   panicked threads.
+//!
+//! There are a few additional purely-academic complications to handle overflow,
+//! which are documented in the implementation.
+//!
+//! The rest of this module is mostly derived by copy-pasting the implementation of
+//! RefCell and fixing things up as appropriate. Certain non-threadsafe methods
+//! have been removed. We segment the concurrency logic from the rest of the code to
+//! keep the tricky parts small and easy to audit.
 
-use owning_ref::{OwningRef, StableAddress};
-use parking_lot::{RwLock, RwLockReadGuard, RwLockWriteGuard};
+#![allow(unsafe_code)]
+#![deny(missing_docs)]
+
+use std::cell::UnsafeCell;
+use std::cmp;
 use std::fmt;
 use std::fmt::Debug;
 use std::ops::{Deref, DerefMut};
+use std::sync::atomic;
+use std::sync::atomic::AtomicUsize;
 
-/// Container type providing RefCell-like semantics for objects shared across
-/// threads.
-///
-/// RwLock is traditionally considered to be the |Sync| analogue of RefCell.
-/// However, for consumers that can guarantee that they will never mutably
-/// borrow the contents concurrently with immutable borrows, an RwLock feels
-/// like overkill.
-///
-/// The RwLock in the standard library is indeed heavyweight, since it heap-
-/// allocates an OS-specific primitive and delegates operations to it. However,
-/// parking_lot provides a pure-rust implementation of the standard
-/// synchronization primitives, with uncontended borrows compiling down to a
-/// single atomic operation. This is exactly how we would build an atomic
-/// RefCell, so we newtype it with some API sugar.
-pub struct AtomicRefCell<T>(RwLock<T>);
-
-pub struct AtomicRef<'a, T: 'a>(RwLockReadGuard<'a, T>);
-unsafe impl<'a, T> StableAddress for AtomicRef<'a, T> {}
-
-impl<'a, T> Deref for AtomicRef<'a, T> {
-    type Target = T;
-    fn deref(&self) -> &T {
-        self.0.deref()
-    }
-}
-
-pub struct AtomicRefMut<'a, T: 'a>(RwLockWriteGuard<'a, T>);
-unsafe impl<'a, T> StableAddress for AtomicRefMut<'a, T> {}
-
-impl<'a, T> Deref for AtomicRefMut<'a, T> {
-    type Target = T;
-    fn deref(&self) -> &T {
-        self.0.deref()
-    }
-}
-
-impl<'a, T> DerefMut for AtomicRefMut<'a, T> {
-    fn deref_mut(&mut self) -> &mut T {
-        self.0.deref_mut()
-    }
-}
-
-impl<'a, T: 'a + Debug> Debug for AtomicRef<'a, T> {
-    fn fmt(&self, f: &mut fmt::Formatter) -> fmt::Result {
-        write!(f, "{:?}", self.0.deref())
-    }
-}
-
-impl<'a, T: 'a + Debug> Debug for AtomicRefMut<'a, T> {
-    fn fmt(&self, f: &mut fmt::Formatter) -> fmt::Result {
-        write!(f, "{:?}", self.0.deref())
-    }
+/// A threadsafe analogue to RefCell.
+pub struct AtomicRefCell<T: ?Sized> {
+    borrow: AtomicUsize,
+    value: UnsafeCell<T>,
 }
 
 impl<T> AtomicRefCell<T> {
-    pub fn new(value: T) -> Self {
-        AtomicRefCell(RwLock::new(value))
+    /// Creates a new `AtomicRefCell` containing `value`.
+    #[inline]
+    pub fn new(value: T) -> AtomicRefCell<T> {
+        AtomicRefCell {
+            borrow: AtomicUsize::new(0),
+            value: UnsafeCell::new(value),
+        }
     }
+
+    /// Consumes the `AtomicRefCell`, returning the wrapped value.
+    #[inline]
+    pub fn into_inner(self) -> T {
+        debug_assert!(self.borrow.load(atomic::Ordering::Acquire) == 0);
+        unsafe { self.value.into_inner() }
+    }
+}
+
+impl<T: ?Sized> AtomicRefCell<T> {
+    /// Immutably borrows the wrapped value.
+    #[inline]
     pub fn borrow(&self) -> AtomicRef<T> {
-        AtomicRef(self.0.try_read().expect("already mutably borrowed"))
+        AtomicRef {
+            value: unsafe { &*self.value.get() },
+            borrow: AtomicBorrowRef::new(&self.borrow),
+        }
     }
+
+    /// Mutably borrows the wrapped value.
+    #[inline]
     pub fn borrow_mut(&self) -> AtomicRefMut<T> {
-        AtomicRefMut(self.0.try_write().expect("already borrowed"))
+        AtomicRefMut {
+            value: unsafe { &mut *self.value.get() },
+            borrow: AtomicBorrowRefMut::new(&self.borrow),
+        }
+    }
+
+    /// Returns a raw pointer to the underlying data in this cell.
+    ///
+    /// External synchronization is needed to avoid data races when dereferencing
+    /// the pointer.
+    #[inline]
+    pub fn as_ptr(&self) -> *mut T {
+        self.value.get()
+    }
+}
+
+//
+// Core synchronization logic. Keep this section small and easy to audit.
+//
+
+const HIGH_BIT: usize = !(::std::usize::MAX >> 1);
+const MAX_FAILED_BORROWS: usize = HIGH_BIT + (HIGH_BIT >> 1);
+
+struct AtomicBorrowRef<'b> {
+    borrow: &'b AtomicUsize,
+}
+
+impl<'b> AtomicBorrowRef<'b> {
+    #[inline]
+    fn new(borrow: &'b AtomicUsize) -> Self {
+        let new = borrow.fetch_add(1, atomic::Ordering::Acquire) + 1;
+
+        // If the new count has the high bit set, panic. The specifics of how
+        // we panic is interesting for soundness, but irrelevant for real programs.
+        //
+        // FIXME(bholley): Counter-intuitively, moving the panic logic below out-of-
+        // line costs about 2ns on the benchmark. My best guess is that we end up
+        // predicting the wrong branch, but there's no way to mark something as
+        // unlikely on stable rust. :-(
+        if new & HIGH_BIT != 0 {
+            if new == HIGH_BIT {
+                // We overflowed into the reserved upper half of the refcount
+                // space. Before panicking, decrement the refcount to leave things
+                // in a consistent immutable-borrow state.
+                //
+                // This can basically only happen if somebody forget()s AtomicRefs
+                // in a tight loop.
+                borrow.fetch_sub(1, atomic::Ordering::Release);
+                panic!("too many immutable borrows");
+            } else if new >= MAX_FAILED_BORROWS {
+                // During the mutable borrow, an absurd number of threads have
+                // incremented the refcount and panicked. To avoid hypothetically
+                // wrapping the refcount, we abort the process once a certain
+                // threshold is reached.
+                //
+                // This requires billions of threads to have panicked already, and
+                // so will never happen in a real program.
+                println!("Too many failed borrows");
+                ::std::process::exit(1);
+            } else {
+                // This is the normal case, and the only one which should happen
+                // in a real program.
+                panic!("already mutably borrowed");
+            }
+        }
+
+        AtomicBorrowRef { borrow: borrow }
+    }
+}
+
+impl<'b> Drop for AtomicBorrowRef<'b> {
+    #[inline]
+    fn drop(&mut self) {
+        let old = self.borrow.fetch_sub(1, atomic::Ordering::Release);
+        // This assertion is technically incorrect in the case where another
+        // thread hits the hypothetical overflow case, since we might observe
+        // the refcount before it fixes it up (and panics). But that never will
+        // never happen in a real program, and this is a debug_assert! anyway.
+        debug_assert!(old & HIGH_BIT == 0);
+    }
+}
+
+struct AtomicBorrowRefMut<'b> {
+    borrow: &'b AtomicUsize,
+}
+
+impl<'b> Drop for AtomicBorrowRefMut<'b> {
+    #[inline]
+    fn drop(&mut self) {
+        self.borrow.store(0, atomic::Ordering::Release);
+    }
+}
+
+impl<'b> AtomicBorrowRefMut<'b> {
+    #[inline]
+    fn new(borrow: &'b AtomicUsize) -> AtomicBorrowRefMut<'b> {
+        // Use compare-and-swap to avoid corrupting the immutable borrow count
+        // on illegal mutable borrows.
+        let old = match borrow.compare_exchange(0, HIGH_BIT, atomic::Ordering::Acquire, atomic::Ordering::Relaxed) {
+            Ok(x) => x,
+            Err(x) => x,
+        };
+        assert!(old == 0, "already {} borrowed", if old & HIGH_BIT == 0 { "immutably" } else { "mutably" });
+        AtomicBorrowRefMut {
+            borrow: borrow
+        }
+    }
+}
+
+unsafe impl<T: ?Sized + Send + Sync> Send for AtomicRefCell<T> {}
+unsafe impl<T: ?Sized + Send + Sync> Sync for AtomicRefCell<T> {}
+
+//
+// End of core synchronization logic. No tricky thread stuff allowed below
+// this point.
+//
+
+impl<T: Clone> Clone for AtomicRefCell<T> {
+    #[inline]
+    fn clone(&self) -> AtomicRefCell<T> {
+        AtomicRefCell::new(self.borrow().clone())
     }
 }
 
 impl<T: Default> Default for AtomicRefCell<T> {
-    fn default() -> Self {
-        Self::new(T::default())
+    #[inline]
+    fn default() -> AtomicRefCell<T> {
+        AtomicRefCell::new(Default::default())
     }
 }
 
-/*
- * Implement Ref{,Mut}::map()-like semantics for AtomicRef{,Mut}. We can't quite
- * use AtomicRef{,Mut} as the mapped type, but we can use some trait tricks to
- * allow us to pass MappedAtomicRef{,Mut} back into AtomicRef{,Mut}::map().
- *
- * Note: We cannot implement an AtomicRefMut::map() method until we have mutable
- * OwningRef. See https://github.com/Kimundi/owning-ref-rs/pull/16
- */
-pub type MappedAtomicRef<'a, T: 'a, U: 'a> = OwningRef<AtomicRef<'a, T>, U>;
-
-pub trait Map<'a, Base, Curr> {
-    fn map<New, F>(self, f: F) -> MappedAtomicRef<'a, Base, New>
-        where F: FnOnce(&Curr) -> &New;
+impl<T: ?Sized + PartialEq> PartialEq for AtomicRefCell<T> {
+    #[inline]
+    fn eq(&self, other: &AtomicRefCell<T>) -> bool {
+        *self.borrow() == *other.borrow()
+    }
 }
 
-impl<'a, Base> Map<'a, Base, Base> for AtomicRef<'a, Base> {
-    fn map<New, F>(self, f: F) -> MappedAtomicRef<'a, Base, New>
-        where F: FnOnce(&Base) -> &New
+impl<T: ?Sized + Eq> Eq for AtomicRefCell<T> {}
+
+impl<T: ?Sized + PartialOrd> PartialOrd for AtomicRefCell<T> {
+    #[inline]
+    fn partial_cmp(&self, other: &AtomicRefCell<T>) -> Option<cmp::Ordering> {
+        self.borrow().partial_cmp(&*other.borrow())
+    }
+}
+
+impl<T: ?Sized + Ord> Ord for AtomicRefCell<T> {
+    #[inline]
+    fn cmp(&self, other: &AtomicRefCell<T>) -> cmp::Ordering {
+        self.borrow().cmp(&*other.borrow())
+    }
+}
+
+impl<T> From<T> for AtomicRefCell<T> {
+    fn from(t: T) -> AtomicRefCell<T> {
+        AtomicRefCell::new(t)
+    }
+}
+
+impl<'b> Clone for AtomicBorrowRef<'b> {
+    #[inline]
+    fn clone(&self) -> AtomicBorrowRef<'b> {
+        AtomicBorrowRef::new(self.borrow)
+    }
+}
+
+/// A wrapper type for an immutably borrowed value from an `AtomicRefCell<T>`.
+pub struct AtomicRef<'b, T: ?Sized + 'b> {
+    value: &'b T,
+    borrow: AtomicBorrowRef<'b>,
+}
+
+
+impl<'b, T: ?Sized> Deref for AtomicRef<'b, T> {
+    type Target = T;
+
+    #[inline]
+    fn deref(&self) -> &T {
+        self.value
+    }
+}
+
+impl<'b, T: ?Sized> AtomicRef<'b, T> {
+    /// Copies an `AtomicRef`.
+    #[inline]
+    pub fn clone(orig: &AtomicRef<'b, T>) -> AtomicRef<'b, T> {
+        AtomicRef {
+            value: orig.value,
+            borrow: orig.borrow.clone(),
+        }
+    }
+
+    /// Make a new `AtomicRef` for a component of the borrowed data.
+    #[inline]
+    pub fn map<U: ?Sized, F>(orig: AtomicRef<'b, T>, f: F) -> AtomicRef<'b, U>
+        where F: FnOnce(&T) -> &U
     {
-        OwningRef::new(self).map(f)
+        AtomicRef {
+            value: f(orig.value),
+            borrow: orig.borrow,
+        }
     }
 }
 
-impl<'a, Base, Curr> Map<'a, Base, Curr> for MappedAtomicRef<'a, Base, Curr> {
-    fn map<New, F>(self, f: F) -> MappedAtomicRef<'a, Base, New>
-        where F: FnOnce(&Curr) -> &New
+impl<'b, T: ?Sized> AtomicRefMut<'b, T> {
+    /// Make a new `AtomicRefMut` for a component of the borrowed data, e.g. an enum
+    /// variant.
+    #[inline]
+    pub fn map<U: ?Sized, F>(orig: AtomicRefMut<'b, T>, f: F) -> AtomicRefMut<'b, U>
+        where F: FnOnce(&mut T) -> &mut U
     {
-        self.map(f)
+        AtomicRefMut {
+            value: f(orig.value),
+            borrow: orig.borrow,
+        }
     }
 }
 
-impl<'a, Base> AtomicRef<'a, Base> {
-    pub fn map<Curr, New, M, F>(orig: M, f: F) -> MappedAtomicRef<'a, Base, New>
-        where F: FnOnce(&Curr) -> &New, M: Map<'a, Base, Curr>
-    {
-        orig.map(f)
+/// A wrapper type for a mutably borrowed value from an `AtomicRefCell<T>`.
+pub struct AtomicRefMut<'b, T: ?Sized + 'b> {
+    value: &'b mut T,
+    borrow: AtomicBorrowRefMut<'b>,
+}
+
+impl<'b, T: ?Sized> Deref for AtomicRefMut<'b, T> {
+    type Target = T;
+
+    #[inline]
+    fn deref(&self) -> &T {
+        self.value
+    }
+}
+
+impl<'b, T: ?Sized> DerefMut for AtomicRefMut<'b, T> {
+    #[inline]
+    fn deref_mut(&mut self) -> &mut T {
+        self.value
+    }
+}
+
+impl<'b, T: ?Sized + Debug + 'b> Debug for AtomicRef<'b, T> {
+    fn fmt(&self, f: &mut fmt::Formatter) -> fmt::Result {
+        self.value.fmt(f)
+     }
+}
+
+impl<'b, T: ?Sized + Debug + 'b> Debug for AtomicRefMut<'b, T> {
+    fn fmt(&self, f: &mut fmt::Formatter) -> fmt::Result {
+        self.value.fmt(f)
     }
 }
diff --git a/components/style/lib.rs b/components/style/lib.rs
index e740d6ad385..04bf213d92f 100644
--- a/components/style/lib.rs
+++ b/components/style/lib.rs
@@ -89,7 +89,6 @@ extern crate time;
 extern crate unicode_segmentation;
 
 pub mod animation;
-#[allow(missing_docs)] // TODO: Under a rewrite.
 pub mod atomic_refcell;
 #[allow(missing_docs)] // TODO.
 pub mod attr;
diff --git a/tests/unit/style/atomic_refcell.rs b/tests/unit/style/atomic_refcell.rs
index 4e6e36d0f8f..8f131085a42 100644
--- a/tests/unit/style/atomic_refcell.rs
+++ b/tests/unit/style/atomic_refcell.rs
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
  * License, v. 2.0. If a copy of the MPL was not distributed with this
  * file, You can obtain one at http://mozilla.org/MPL/2.0/. */
 
-use style::atomic_refcell::{AtomicRef, AtomicRefCell};
+use style::atomic_refcell::{AtomicRef, AtomicRefCell, AtomicRefMut};
 use test::Bencher;
 
 struct Foo {
@@ -19,6 +19,60 @@ impl Default for Bar {
     }
 }
 
+// FIXME(bholley): Add tests to exercise this in concurrent scenarios.
+
+#[test]
+fn immutable() {
+    let a = AtomicRefCell::new(Bar::default());
+    let _first = a.borrow();
+    let _second = a.borrow();
+}
+
+#[test]
+fn mutable() {
+    let a = AtomicRefCell::new(Bar::default());
+    let _ = a.borrow_mut();
+}
+
+#[test]
+fn interleaved() {
+    let a = AtomicRefCell::new(Bar::default());
+    {
+        let _ = a.borrow_mut();
+    }
+    {
+        let _first = a.borrow();
+        let _second = a.borrow();
+    }
+    {
+        let _ = a.borrow_mut();
+    }
+}
+
+#[test]
+#[should_panic(expected = "already immutably borrowed")]
+fn immutable_then_mutable() {
+    let a = AtomicRefCell::new(Bar::default());
+    let _first = a.borrow();
+    let _second = a.borrow_mut();
+}
+
+#[test]
+#[should_panic(expected = "already mutably borrowed")]
+fn mutable_then_immutable() {
+    let a = AtomicRefCell::new(Bar::default());
+    let _first = a.borrow_mut();
+    let _second = a.borrow();
+}
+
+#[test]
+#[should_panic(expected = "already mutably borrowed")]
+fn double_mutable() {
+    let a = AtomicRefCell::new(Bar::default());
+    let _first = a.borrow_mut();
+    let _second = a.borrow_mut();
+}
+
 #[test]
 fn map() {
     let a = AtomicRefCell::new(Bar::default());
@@ -57,19 +111,17 @@ fn mutable_borrow(b: &mut Bencher) {
     b.iter(|| a.borrow_mut());
 }
 
-/* FIXME(bholley): Enable once we have AtomicRefMut::map(), which is blocked on
- * https://github.com/Kimundi/owning-ref-rs/pull/16
 #[test]
 fn map_mut() {
-    let a = AtomicRefCell::new(Bar { f: Foo { u: 42 } });
+    let a = AtomicRefCell::new(Bar::default());
     let mut b = a.borrow_mut();
     assert_eq!(b.f.u, 42);
     b.f.u = 43;
-    let mut c = AtomicRefMut::map(b, |x| &x.f);
+    let mut c = AtomicRefMut::map(b, |x| &mut x.f);
     assert_eq!(c.u, 43);
     c.u = 44;
-    let mut d = AtomicRefMut::map(c, |x| &x.u);
+    let mut d = AtomicRefMut::map(c, |x| &mut x.u);
     assert_eq!(*d, 44);
-    *d. = 45;
+    *d = 45;
     assert_eq!(*d, 45);
-}*/
+}