Violet (14), Klaus (12), and baby Sunny Baudelaire are orphans, their parents having died in a fire at the beginning of the previous novel. They have survived being placed in the care of an evil, murderous man named Count Olaf, who wants to steal the fortune their parents left them to inherit when they each turn 18. In the previous book, however, Count Olaf escaped the authorities, vowing to one day find the Baudelaires again, steal their money, and make their lives miserable until they’re old enough that he doesn’t need to keep them alive anymore.

Now, their deceased parents’ friend, Mr. Poe, is driving the Baudelaires down “Lousy Lane,” a gray and dreary road laden with gothic imagery, toward their new guardian’s house. Mr. Poe, a banker who always has a cough, is kind and well-intentioned but usually oblivious to danger. He often fails to listen to the children, which almost cost them their lives in the previous book. The Baudelaires worry about what their new guardian, a distant relative named Dr. Montgomery Montgomery, will be like. In the previous book, the children survived because of their unique abilities, which they combined via teamwork.