Because none of their distant relatives will take them in out of fear of Count Olaf, the three Baudelaire orphans become part of a new program based on the saying "It takes a village to raise a child." Under this program, Violet, Klaus, and Sunny's newest guardians will be all the residents of an entire village. In the hopes of solving the mystery of "V.F.D.," the children choose a village by that name as their new home. But they are terribly disappointed. They are sent to live with a kind but timid man named Hector who loves to cook Mexican food and has a library of forbidden books. V.F.D. is run by the strict Council of Elders, who have made tens of thousands of ridiculous rules that the citizens of the village must follow or risk being burned at the stake. When the Baudelaires are falsely accused of murder and imprisoned, they must escape from the jail and find their friends the Quagmires, who are hidden somewhere in the village.