"The Bad Beginning" starts off with Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire finding out their parents have died in a fire and they are now orphans, shuttled off to live with a distant relative named Count Olaf. It's pretty clear the the Baudelaire children that Count Olaf is just interested in their parents' enormous fortune, which can't be touched until Violet comes of age, but none of the dimwitted adults in the children's lives believe them. It's very funny and witty and charming.
"The Reptile Room": After proving to the dimwitted adults that Count Olaf really was after their fortune, the Baudelaire orphans are sent to live with their Uncle Monty, who studies snakes. At first things are great: Uncle Monty is a wonderful guardian who takes good care of the kids and is planning a big snake hunting expedition to Peru. Right before they are set to leave, his new assistant shows up: Stephano. Staphano is clearly Count Olaf in disguise, but the kids can't get Uncle Monty alone long enough to explain the dire situation to him. Sadly, Olaf murders Monty and the kids are shipped off to live with yet another guardian.
"The Wide Window" has the three Baudelaire orphans going to live with their Aunt Josephine on the shore of Lake Lachrymose. Poor Aunt Josephine is terrified of everything, and life with her is pretty miserable, but at least they're safe from Count Olaf.
Sadly, not for long. Count Olaf shows up in disguise as Captain Sham, who runs a sailboat rental business. He charms Aunt Josephine, despite the orphans warnings (they see through his disguise right away, of course) and ends up forcing her to write a suicide note leaving the children in his care. Josephine cleverly plants clues in the note that Klaus deciphers and the children find her hiding in the Curdled Cave, bravely risking their lives in a hurricane to reach her. Sadly, they are stranded out in the middle of the lake when Count Olaf rescues them, throwing poor Aunt Josephine out to be eaten by the infamous leeches. Mr. Poe shows up just in time to make a bumbling mess of everything, and the kids are once again left without a home. ( )