Just as Arthur Penhaligon returns home, the phone Dame Primus gave to him in Mister Monday begins to ring. Dame Primus herself is on the line telling Arthur six months have passed in the House since he left and Tuesday has found a loophole that allows him to take over the lands Arthur has wrested from Monday. Arthur must return to the House straightaway to reclaim his inheritance, but before she may explain how the line goes dead.
Arthur manages to get into the Far Reaches, Tuesday's domain, where he is mistaken for an indentured worker. He and Japeth, a former Thesaurus, fall behind when their press-gang moves to another region and are picked up by Suzy Turquoise Blue, Arthur's friend from his first adventures through the House. Suzy has brought tools to help them break into Tuesday's tower and rescue the second part of the Architect's will and the Second Key.
Suzy and Arthur make it into Tuesday's tower through the glass pyramid which protects it and find the Mariner, the second son of the Architect and the Old One. The Mariner is held in Tuesday's service through blackmail and helps Arthur retrieve the Will. But when the Will revokes Tuesday's power, he demands the Key instigating a competition between Arthur and himself over which the Mariner presides as judge.
The competition is to create something unique and original: Tuesday creates a magnificent tree and Arthur creates a xylophone and plays his own tune. The tune proves to be more creative than Tuesday's replication of a secondary realm sculpture. Arthur is declared winner and rushes off to repair damages to the Far Reaches.
At the buttress between the Far Reaches and the Nothing Arthur finds an upper house denizen, who is believed to be Superior Saturday's servant Dusk, meddling in Arthur's newly claimed lands. A fight ensues which Arthur wins and the shadow of Trustee interference blooms over Arthur's time in the House. When he returns, Dame Primus has united parts one and two of the Will and names Arthur Lord of the Far Reaches, then takes over stewardship so that he may return home.
Arthur makes the decision to slow the process of becoming a denizen so that he may return to his family. Dame Primus reverses the effects of the first Key and Arthur is admitted to the hospital when he does arrive home. He awakens to an invitation from Drowned Wednesday under his hospital room pillow.
Tuesday is greedy, his entire lifestyle revolves around more and more until the world he is to care for is falling around his ears. Like the other Trustees in the Keys to the Kingdom, this flaw is his downfall making him unworthy for his position and allowing him to misuse his power. For Arthur, defeating Tuesday is only one more step toward achieving his inheritance from the Architect. Grim Tuesday is followed by Drowned Wednesday in the Keys to the Kingdom Series and is good reading material for readers as young as fifth grade.
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