In Green Lake, Texas, the Yelnats family has been cursed to be unlucky, which they blame on their ancestor Elya's failure to keep a promise to fortune teller Madame Zeroni over a century earlier in Latvia.
In Green Lake, Texas, the Yelnats family suffers from a long-standing string of unfortunate events, which they attribute to their ancestor Elya's failure to uphold an obligation to the Latvian mystic Madame Zeroni.