Central Kansas Library System

The Baudelaire orphans begin their journey in a cab with a distraught pregnant woman named Kit Snicket while on route to the Hotel Denouement and must pose as concierges while trying to ferret out the secrets of the elusive sugar bowl.

Dear Reader, I hope, for your sake, that you have not chosen to read this book because you are in the mood for a pleasant experience. If this is the case, I advise you to put this book down instantaneously, because of all the books describing the unhappy lives of the Baudelaire orphans, this one might be the unhappiest yet. Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire are sent to Paltryville to work in a lumbermill, and they find disaster and misfortune lurking...

The woeful saga of the Baudelaire orphans continues. Within the chapters of this story, Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire encounter a darkened staircase, a red herring, some friends in a dire situation, three mysterious initials, a liar with an evil scheme, a secret passageway, and parsley soda.

Under a new government program based on the saying "It takes a village to raise a child," the Baudelaire orphans are adopted by an entire town, with disastrous results.

As their outrageous misfortune continues, the Baudelaire orphans are shipped off to a miserable boarding school, where they befriend the two Quagmire triplets and find that they have been followed by the dreaded Count Olaf.

Violet, Klaus, and Sunny are taken to the Caligari Carnival where they disguise themselves as freaks while Count Olaf seeks the help of Madame Lulu to locate the children and find out the truth concerning their parents' death.

The catastrophes and misfortune continue to plague the Baudelaire orphans.