Trying to figure out the secret of VFD, which their friends the Quagmire triplets hinted at in the last book, the Baudelaire orphans go to live in a village titled "VFD" in a pamphlet. But alas, the villagers have no desire to parent the orphans, and isntead expect them to spend all their days cleaning up after the town's flock of crows (a flock so large that it completely blankets the town, making it look like a shivering mirage from afar). And of course, Count Olaf appears to make their lives even more miserable.