Mom asks where Calvin is going. He says "out". Mom asks if he picked up his room like she asked him to. He says "no". Mom asks for clarification. She says so when Calvin says "out", he really means he's going back upstairs to clean his room. Calvin stands in his messy room and complains that English must not be her first language.

Mom asks Calvin why he's back downstairs. She asks if she didn't just send him to clean his room. Calvin replies "Twisted fiend! No four walls can hold Stupendous Man! You've been foiled again, evil Mom-lady". Mom bends down and gives Calvin a nasty look. She says "Oh, yeah". Calvin stumbles up the stairs with eyes spinning. He says her mind-scrambling eyeball ray has him going back upstairs to do her nefarious bidding.

Calvin is complaining to Hobbes about being told to clean up his room. He says it's his room. If he doesn't care, why should anyone else. He calls it tyranny. He says it will take all day to clean it. A whole day wasted, shot, down the drain. Hobbes asks how this could possibly take all day. Calvin says it will be another hour before he's through griping.

Calvin thinks the room cleaning will go faster if both he and Hobbes work. Calvin offers to sit and do all the tedious, agonizing planning and organizing. He'll make all the hard decisions, and Hobbes won't have to. All Hobbes has to do is pick up what Calvin tells him to. Hobbes picks up Calvin. Calvin tells him he didn't say to pick him. He tells Hobbes to get away from that trash can.

Calvin yells that he cleaned his room. He wants to go outside. Mom says it didn't take very long. She wants a look to see what kind of job he did. Calvin says he did a great job. Mom says the room looks clean. She then asks if he straightened up the closet like she asked. Calvin yells for her not to open the door. Too late. Mom is buried by all the stuff Calvin threw in there. Mom tells him to go back to work. Calvin complains that she made this mess, so she should clean it up.