After the tragic death of their parents, Violet (Emily Browning), Klaus (Liam Aiken), and Sunny (Kara and Shelby Hoffman) Baudelaire travel from guardian to guardian by a good friend of their parents, Mr. Poe (Timothy Spall). The orphans stay with herpetologist Montgomery Montgomery (Billy Connolly) and grammar-wise Josephine Anwhistle (Meryl Streep), but the worst one was Count Olaf (Jim Carrey), an evil and greedy man, who, with the help of his assistants, the bald man (Luis Guzmán), the hook-handed man (Jamie Harris), the person of undeterminable gender (Craig Ferguson), and the two white-faced women (Jennifer Coolidge and Jane Adams), tries to steal the Baudelaire fortune. To do this, he disguises himself in the forms of assistant, Stephano, and ship captain, Julio Sham.