Following his 1899 success McTeague, Norris formulated his idea for a trilogy of novels on the topic of wheat, his Epic of the Wheat, from its growth in California in The Octopus, to its distribution via Chicago in his posthumously published 1903 work The Pit, to its consumption in a famished region of Europe in The Wolf.
The Octopus depicts the conflict between wheat farmers in the San Joaquin Valley and the fictional Pacific and Southwestern Railroad (P. & S. W.).
S. Behrman serves as the local representative of P. & S. W. In his attempt at writing his great epic poem, Presley witnesses the disintegration of Annixter, Derrick, Hooven, and their families.
She married Jadwin, who over time loses interest in her as he gets more involved in wheat speculation at the Chicago Board of Trade.
Though he had decided on the title and some general ideas, he did not begin work in earnest before he died unexpectedly in October, 1902 from peritonitis, leaving his proposed third book of the trilogy, The Wolf: A Story of Europe, unwritten.