The first book is called The Bad Beginning. It is the start of the misery for the Baudelaire's. They meet an evil man named Count Olaf. They go to live with him because he was their new guardian. When the Baudelaire's parents died they left behind a huge fortune. In this book they are at Olaf's house. They have to make Olaf and his troupe dinner, they have to wash dishes, and do chores around Olaf's house. They go to visit Olaf's neighbor, Justice Straus. Justice Straus is a judge. Klaus kind of likes her library because it is books about law. After Olaf tries to kill the Baudelaire's to get their money by having a train run over them in a locked car. The banker, Mr. Poe, comes and catches Olaf. Then Olaf tells Mr. Poe that he is doing a play called The Marvelous Marriage. The play turns out to be a real wedding. Klaus finds out by using Justice Straus's library. Olaf then gets away when every one finds out.

 

The second book is called The Reptile Room. In the second book Mr. Poe takes the Baudelaire's to Uncle Monty's house. Uncle Monty is their new guardian. He loves reptiles. Then Olaf comes in a disguise. He is "Stephano". The only people who know it is Olaf in disguise are the Baudelaire's. Olaf then kills uncle Monty and blames it on one of the snakes called the Very Deadly Viper. It really is not deadly it actually is very harmless. Olaf then gets the Baudelaire's in the car, to go to the train station to go to Peru where uncle Monty was going to take them, and starts to drive away. They then run into Mr. Poe. Mr. Poe uses his hanky to wipe of the makeup on Olaf's tattoo. Then they go back to uncle Monty's house.  The police come.  Then to confront Olaf, Violet has to open his suitcase that he locked. Violet has to open it with something she made, a lock pick made out of a hair pin. She shows the police the things inside the suitcase. The things are a mirror, poison from a snake, a needle, and other things. The police tried to capture him, but he got away again.

 

The third book is called The Wide Window. In this book they go to live with aunt Josephine. Aunt Josephine is crazy. She lives in a house that is almost about to fall in to the Lachrymose Lake. Olaf comes again but this time he is disguised as a sailboat rental manager named Captain Sham. He then gets aunt Josephine to hide in a cave. Aunt Josephine leaves the children a "suicidal note" with grammatical errors  in it and her biggest joy in life is grammar. Klaus then figures it tells where she is hiding. Then they go and find her. Then Olaf comes and takes the children from her leaving her to be eaten by the bloodsucking Lachrymose leeches. They never see or hear of her again. Then Mr. Poe comes and Olaf gets away again.

The fourth book is called the Miserable Mill. In this book they go to live at the Lucky Smells Lumber Mill where they have to work with adults who only get payed in coupons and for lunch they only get to have gum. A man named Sir runs the mill. They meet a man named Phil. He's nice but always makes something positive out of something negative. then the foreman trips Klaus which makes his glasses fly off and break. He takes him to a eye doctor. Klaus then comes back really late at night and looks funny. When Violet tells him to do something he says "yes sir". Then Violet finds out that there is something funny going on and his glasses break again because the foreman trips him again. So Violet and Sunny take him to the eye doctor and when Violet and Sunny are waiting in the waiting room they see none other than Olaf in another one of his disguises. This time he is dressed up as a secretary named Shirley. Later they find out that the eye doctor is working for Olaf and is hypnotizing Klaus. While Klaus is hypnotized the foreman makes Klaus make a machine in the mill land on Phil's leg. Then more tragic things happen but you'll have to read it to find out.