Violet, Klaus and Sunny Baudelaire arrive at the Last Chance General Store on the run from the police and residents of the Village of Fowl Devotees. They are falsely accused of murdering Jacques Snicket at the end of the previous book. There they find a shopkeeper who offers them breakfast and lets them send a telegram from the store to Mr. Poe seeking help, but he doesn't reply before the delivery of The Daily Punctilio forces the reported murderers to flee once more. Picked up by the Volunteers Fighting Disease, the children ask them if they knew a Jacques, (because Volunteers Fighting Disease's initials are V.F.D.) but they tell them that they don't know him, and add that they don't know each other's real name, but only call each other brother and sister.