This is a story about three orphans named Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire, who,
having escaped Count Olaf from stealing their family fortune, move in with Aunt Josephine,
a widow who lives in a house with a beautiful view overlooking Lake Lachrymose.
Aunt Josephine likes grammar and is afraid of everything, including cooking with the
stove and answering the phone.
Aunt Josephine takes the children to town to buy groceries and meets Captain Sham, a
boat operator who is new in town.
The children immediately recognize that Captain Sham is Count Olaf in disguise, but Aunt Josephine
doesn’t suspect it.
One evening, the children hear a crash and find a note from Aunt Josephine saying that
she jumped out of the window and that the children should live with Captain Sham.
The children read the note closely and, because it’s written in such poor grammar, suspect
that it is a fake.
Mr. Poe, a family friend, comes over to the house and determines that the note matches
the handwriting of Aunt Josephine, even though the children are convinced the note is from
Captain Sham.
Captain Sham, Mr. Poe, and the children have lunch in town, but the children purposely
give themselves an allergic reaction and go back to the house to figure things out.
Klaus analyzes the letter closely and determines that although Aunt Josephine wrote the note,
she left clues that she is hiding in a nearby cave called Curdled Cave.
As the approaching hurricane grows stronger, the children escape the house before it falls
into the lake.
Because the local ferry is closed, the children steal a boat from Captain Sham and find Aunt
Josephine hiding in Curdled Cave.
Aunt Josephine explains that she faked her death with the note and wants to stay in the
cave, but decides to go back to town to expose Captain Sham.
As they travel across the lake, the Lachrymose Leeches, deadly leeches that eat people, attack
the boat.
As the boat begins to sink, Violet creates a signal fire and a rescue boat assists them.
However, the rescue boat is captained by Captain Sham and his accomplice.
Before returning back to the dock, Captain Sham pushes Aunt Josephine into the lake and
the Lachrymose Leeches eat her.
Once on the dock, the children try to plea with Mr. Poe that Captain Sham is Count Olaf,
but he doesn’t believe them.
Sunny bites Captain Sham’s peg leg and it’s revealed to be a fake.
In the end, Count Olaf gets away and Mr. Poe takes the children to live with another relative.