a series of disastrous circumstances

What if the baudelaires never went to live with Count Olaf, Uncle Monty, Aunt Josephine or work at the lumber mill and were sent to Prufrock preparatory? What if their circumstances were different. Of course, you'd be lead to believe that perhaps in this story there might be a happy beginning or happy ending or just be happy in general, however, I regret to inform you, that's not how the story goes.