The Ersatz Elevator by Lemony Snicket published by Harper Collins in 2001 is the sixth installment in the children’s mystery A Series of Unfortunate Events books. It follows the Baudelaire orphans as they navigate yet another new home while trying to stay ahead of the dastardly villain, Count Olaf, who seeks to steal their fortune. Since the publication of the first book, The Bad Beginning, in 1999, A Series of Unfortunate Events books (13 in total) have achieved commercial and critical success, collectively selling over 60 million copies worldwide. The Bad Beginning won several awards, including the Nene Award and the Nevada Young Readers Award, and the entire series has been adapted several times over, including into a full-length film and Netflix series. Lemony Snicket is the pen name of American author and screenwriter Daniel Handler, who is best known for his children’s books, though he also writes for adults. Prior to penning The Bad Beginning, Handler had never written for children, and he credits inspiration for his style to Edward Gorey and Roald Dahl. He currently lives in San Francisco with his wife.

This guide follows the 2015 Harper Collins e-pub edition of The Ersatz Elevator.

Plot Summary

The Ersatz Elevator picks up after the events of The Austere Academy, the fifth book in A Series of Unfortunate Events and follows the Baudelaire orphans to Dark Street, where they are placed in the care of a rich couple with very different personalities. Prior to this, the children befriended the Quagmire triplets, another group of orphans who Count Olaf seeks to disinherit, and together, the Baudelaires and Quagmires worked together to find a clue that would unravel Olaf’s plans. Before the Quagmires could explain all their findings to the Baudelaires, Olaf captured them. The Baudelaire children have spent the intervening time trying to puzzle out the clue to Olaf’s undoing while worrying for their friends.

Dark Street is a rich neighborhood where life is dictated by what trends are “In” or “Out” at a given moment. The orphans are sent to live with Jerome and Esmé, who live in a penthouse. As elevators are Out, the children are forced to climb the several flights of stairs to their new home, and when they finally reach the penthouse, they are glad to find Jerome is kind while frustrated that Esmé cares more about trends than them.

One night, Esmé sends Jerome and the children out to dinner because the auctioneer for the In Auction—an event where only In items will be sold—is coming over. Before the children leave, they meet the auctioneer, who is Count Olaf in disguise. The children try to convince Jerome and Esmé the man is a villain, but the adults refuse to listen. Jerome says he doesn’t like to argue and Esmé doesn’t listen because she is secretly in league with Olaf. Determined to save themselves and find the Quagmire triplets, the Baudelaires search the entire building, discovering a false elevator on the top floor. Instead of an elevator shaft, the doors lead to a dark vertical tunnel. The Baudelaires fashion a rope to climb down, where they find the Quagmire triplets captive in a cage. Olaf intends to hide them in something at the In Auction so one of his associates can bid on it, smuggling them away without anyone knowing. The Baudelaires retrieve tools to free the triplets, but by the time they return, the triplets are gone.

The Baudelaires tell Esmé everything, and Esmé pretends to listen, only to push them back into the false elevator shaft, where a net has been strung up to hold them captive halfway down so they can’t escape. Using her extremely strong teeth, the youngest Baudelaire, Sunny, climbs up the shaft and retrieves the rope so the children can climb down and track Olaf through an underground tunnel that ends near the auction house. There, they rush to free the triplets from a box, only to realize Olaf tricked them and that the triplets are gone. Esmé reveals she’s been working with Olaf, and the two escape with the triplets.