The dreadful history of the Baudelaire children begins with a deadpan narrator, a terrible fire and the ominous arrival of a distant relative.

While Mr. Poe's secretary works overtime, Count Olaf casts Violet and Klaus in "The Marvelous Marriage," a work of theater with alarming implications.

Klaus just isn't himself after seeing Dr. Orwell, an optometrist with oddly optimistic patients. Meanwhile, Violet works to clear her parents' names.

Violet, Klaus and Sunny get new guardians in a fashionable building, where stairs are in -- and the elevator's out. Jacques Snicket trains a recruit.

The Baudelaires find their friends -- and then lose them -- at the bottom of an elevator shaft. Count Olaf conducts an auction in disguise.

The orphans find themselves under suspicion in the wake of a devastating murder. But time behind bars leads to an important realization.