Various parties converge at the Hotel Denouement, where the mysterious “J.S.” has called the V.F.D. together — and things aren’t always what they seem.

Still posing as conjoined carnival freaks, the Baudelaires brace themselves for a beastly fate. Will good fortune intervene … for once?

Come one, come all to the creepiest circus the world has ever seen, a place where puzzling mysteries — and a familiar face — await.

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

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

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.

While the Quagmires keep up the search, the Baudelaires struggle to balance their studies with a punishing workout schedule, courtesy of Count Olaf.

The Baudelaires begin life at boarding school and meet a pair of mysterious siblings whose tragic lives sound eerily similar to their own.

Klaus and Violet look for clues in a suspicious note that passes custody to Captain Sham, a seafaring scam artist with clear ties to Count Olaf.

The orphans arrive at the aptly named Lake Lachrymose to meet their widowed Aunt Josephine, a strict grammarian who’s haunted by the past.