The Wide Window is the third book in a 13-book series called A Series of Unfortunate Events. In this series, three children—Violet, Sunny, and Klaus Baudelaire—face the terrible experience of losing their parents and then being moved from home to home as various relatives try and fail to protect them from the scheming Count Olaf. Olaf, desperate to claim the fortune that the children inherited, attempts various plans to bring the children under his control and steal their money. In the first book, he tries to trick Violet into marriage. In the second, Olaf re-enters the children’s lives disguised as Stephano, a new assistant herpetologist who has come to work for their distant uncle, Dr. Montgomery Montgomery (Monty). Although the children try to get help from Monty and the banker who administers their estate, Mr. Poe, the adults consistently dismiss the children’s concerns. After Olaf succeeds in murdering Monty, the children are again moved to another distant relative’s home. The Wide Window begins with the children’s arrival at their Aunt Josephine’s house on the shores of Lake Lachrymose.

The A Series of Unfortunate Events books, in order, are