The Ersatz Elevator is the sixth book in A Series of Unfortunate Events, plunging the Baudelaire orphans into the bewildering world of the city's high society, filled with baffling fashion trends and cryptic clues. Violet, Klaus, and Sunny are placed in the care of their new guardians, the incredibly wealthy and well-meaning but hopelessly detached Esmé Squalor, the city's "sixth most important financial advisor." Esmé and her husband, Jerome, live in a penthouse apartment in a building that is perpetually under a cloud of oppressive grey fashion and contains a non-functioning elevator that is 'ersatz' or a poor substitute. Naturally, Count Olaf reappears, this time disguised as a fashionable auctioneer named Günther, with an incomprehensible accent, and is working closely with Esmé, who is deeply obsessed with what is "in" and what is "out." The orphans must navigate a series of suspicious auctions, a hidden trapdoor, and a network of secret passages to uncover Olaf's plot, which is now closely tied to the mysterious V.F.D. organization and a hidden item their parents left behind. The book is a dark, humorous satire of superficiality and the moral emptiness of high society.
