Chapter One Summary

At the opening of the novel, the three Baudelaire children, Violet, Klaus, and Sunny, read in the daily newspaper that their best friends, the Quagmire triplets, have been kidnapped by the Baudelaires' evil uncle, Count Olaf. Count Olaf has a long history of kidnapping the children of wealthy orphans in the hopes of getting his hands on their money.

The children read this terrible news while they sit in the office of Mr. Poe, the man who has been in charge of placing the Baudelaire children in care ever since their parents were killed in a terrible fire. In the past year, the Baudelaires have lived in many different homes with a variety of terrible results, most at the hands of Count Olaf. Because of this, there are no longer any relatives, however distant, willing to take the Baudelaire children in...