Is Lemony Snicket a detective or a smoke detector? Do you smell smoke? Young apprentice Lemony Snicket is investigating a case of arson but soon finds himself enveloped in the ever-increasing mystery that haunts the town of Stain'd-by-the-Sea. Who is setting the fires? What secrets are hidden in the Department of Education? Why are so many schoolchildren in danger? Is it all the work of the notorious villain Hangfire? How could you even ask that?...

After the Alden siblings visit their Great-Aunt Jane's ranch in a mining town, there is a mysterious fire which damages three houses, but Benny's friend Mike notices a strange man in a blue hat in the paper and Mike and Benny suspect he may be the culprit.

An anonymous diary is a mystery with handwriting that is difficult to decipher. It is filled with technical drawings and chemical formulas. Was the destructive explosion an accident or an act of revenge?