After the end, Klaus enrolls at Oxford University for his undergraduate in combined honours in library science and English literature. Violet, meanwhile, goes to high school. Duncan gets a job with the Daily Punctilio as a journalist and does his best to be impartial. Isadora, meanwhile, has her poetry collection published while she is in high school. Fiona heads to Cambridge to do biology, and Quigley travels the world.
The boat landed on the shore with a jolt; Violet looked at the grey sky of Briny Beach. She shook her sleeping brother awake. "Klaus, we're here!" she cried.
Klaus opened one eye wearily. He was exhausted from his adventures—two years without academia, without his books. He sat up.
"Do you have any plans now we're back in town?" he asked.
"I'm going to high school," said Violet. "So I can go to MIT or Princeton."
"I'm going to university," said Klaus, yawning. "I always intended to do English Literature and Library Science."
"But you'll need grades," said Violet.
"I have papers," said Klaus. "I remember exactly what I wrote."
"You're lucky to have an eidetic memory," Violet said sadly. "I'm going to wake Sunny and Beatrice."
Violet walked over to her younger sister, who was 4. She shook her awake. "Sunny, we're here," she said gently. She approached the one-year-old curled up next to Sunny, carrying her off the boat. She helped Sunny off the boat. Klaus got off, stretching his legs.
"Klaus, I want you to look for somebody," said Violet. "We need shelter and food."
Klaus nodded. He walked away from the boat. He walked along the shore, squinting. He saw a blurry green shape in the distance. He widened his brown eyes, running towards it. A self-sustaining hot air balloon had landed. "Klaus!" cried Isadora, hugging the bookworm. Her long dark brown hair wrapped around his neck.
"Hey, Isadora," he said. Two boys stepped out of the hot air balloon. "Duncan, Quigley!" he cried.
"Where's Violet?" asked Quigley.
Klaus pointed behind him to the boat.
Quigley ran past him.
"I really think he missed Violet," said Duncan.
"We missed you too," Klaus said, smiling. Isadora let go as the three teenagers walked back to the boat. Quigley and Violet were passionately kissing, her hands in his hair, her long, dark brown hair twisting around his neck like a snake. Quigley had his eyes closed, his hands clasped around her neck.
Duncan gave a small cough. Quigley and Violet broke apart.
"Oh, hi, Duncan, Isadora!" cried Violet.
Isadora walked over to Sunny. "You've grown so big!"
Sunny giggled. Isadora picked her up, laughing.
"And who's this?" asked Duncan, picking up Beatrice.
"This is Kit's daughter, Beatrice," said Klaus.
"I don't think we met them," said Duncan, bouncing Beatrice.
"I met Kit," said Quigley. "She's nice."
"She's dead," said Violet.
"How about you guys?" asked Klaus. "Now that you're back in town, do you have plans?"
"Well, Violet and I will pick up where we left off," said Quigley. "And I intend to go exploring and discover new things."
"I'm going to try and get a job with The Daily Punctilio," said Duncan. "Start off as a junior reporter, then maybe I'll find my own newspaper. Who knows?"
"I'm going to get my poetry published," said Isadora. "And you?"
"It's high time I went to University," said Klaus. "I went to high school at such a young age, at 9, as part of a programme for child prodigies."
"And I'll be going to high school," said Violet. "To get the necessary qualifications for MIT or Princeton."
Klaus sighed. "The only question is, where are we going to live?"
"We could go back to Justice Strauss," suggested Violet. "She said we were always welcome in her home."
"Or we could ask Mr Poe," said Quigley. "He was in charge of our affairs."
"How about that man we met at the Hotel Denouement? Lemony?" asked Violet.
"We could drop Beatrice off with Lemony," said Klaus. "Then she would be raised by family."
"We promised Kit," said Sunny.
"Justice Strauss it is," said Klaus.
"What happened to Hector?" asked Violet. Hector was a former guardian of the Baudelaires and took the Quagmires in when Olaf, Esme and the Village of Fowl Devotees were chasing them.
"He died," said Duncan. "We had to make do on our own for a while."
Violet heard the familiar clunk of the rickety trolley as it stopped at Briny Beach. Violet and Quigley got on, Klaus following them. Duncan passed Beatrice to Quigley, getting on the trolley. Klaus held his hand out to Isadora, helping her and Sunny onto the trolley. The trolley clanked forward like a piece of old, rusty metal rod rubbing against another piece of metal. Violet called out their stop as the children got off the trolley. They walked to the familiar neighbourhood where they were once raised, but now their houses have turned to ashes.
They kept walking, as they came to a neighbourhood that the Baudelaires recognised very much; it was where Olaf kept them.
Klaus walked up to the white, pristine house that belonged to Justice Strauss. He rang the doorbell.
"Baudelaires!" cried a woman with mousy-brown hair, a pleasant face and blue eyes.
"Justice Strauss," said Violet. "We need some help."