The book starts with the Baudelaires in Kit Snicket's taxi, the situation at the end of The Grim Grotto. A distraught and pregnant Kit drives them to the Hotel Denouement, where she leaves them with concierge uniforms and tells them to give her a signal that she can see in the sky if the meeting on Thursday is canceled. She also says that Quigley Quagmire, of whom Violet is very fond, is out at sea saving his siblings. They are also to be wary of the managers of the Hotel, identical brothers Frank, a volunteer, and Ernest, a villain. The hotel is designed like a giant library, with rooms cataloged by the Dewey Decimal System. The Baudelaires are expected to serve and help the people of the Hotel, as a front so they can be flâneurs, and in particular learn whether the mysterious "J.S." is h