The Wide Window begins with the three Baudelaire children, Sunny, Klaus and Violet sitting at Damocles Dock after disembarking the Fickle Ferry, which had taken them across Lake Lachrymose. Mr. Poe, had arranged a taxi to take them to their new home. He then gives the children a bag of peppermints (which he always forgets they are allergic to) and sends them on their way.

The taxi pulls up a steep hill to a house which sits just off the side of the cliff, held there by spidery, metal-looking stilts. Inside, they find their next guardian, Aunt Josephine Anwhistle. Although she is a kind old woman, she is frightened by many things...