After the sudden death of their parents, the three Baudelaire children must depend on each other and their wits when it turns out that the distant relative who is appointed their guardian is determined to use any means necessary to get their fortune.

Accidents, evil plots, and general misfortune abound when, in their continuing search for a home, the Beaudelaire orphans are sent to live and work in a sinister lumber mill.

In this next-to-last chronicle of the lives of the Baudelaire orphans, the siblings pose as concierges at the Hotel Denouement to learn the identities and intentions of certain enemies, encountering characters from their past adventures and pondering the nature of nobility and villainy.

"If you are interested in stories with happy endings, you would be better off watching some other movie," warns our narrator, Lemony Snicket. "In this movie," he continues gravely, "not only is there no happy ending, there is no happy beginning and very few happy things in the middle." This is the story of the Baudelaire children -- three "clever and reasonably attractive orphans"--Who embark on a shaky adventure after their home burns down, killing...