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.
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.
In the perilous Mortmain Mountains, Klaus and Violet Baudelaire meet another well-read person, who helps them try to rescue Sunny from the villainous Count Olaf and his henchmen as they all near "the last safe place.".
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 disasterous results.
The woeful saga of the Baudelaire orphans continues as evil Count Olaf discovers their whereabouts at Esme Squalor's seventy-one bedroom penthouse and concocts a new plan for stealing their family fortune.
In an attempt to unravel the mystery that surrounds them, save their sister Sunny from evil Count Olaf, and investigate whether one of their partents is alive, unlucky Violet and Klaus Baudelarie ascend the icy Mortmain Mountains.
The Baudelaire orphans get mixed up with: a harpoon gun, a rooftop sunbathing salon, thy mysterious initials, three unidentified triplets, a notorious villain and more, in this next to the last book of the series.
