The Pit deals with the rough and tumble world of the commodity trading pits at the Chicago Board of Trade Building. This was originally written as the second volume in a planned trilogy; the first book The Octopus : A Story of California is also published in a matching volume by the same publisher. The planned third book was never written. In any case, although part of a trilogy, each book is independent and not connected to the other volumes – the only connection is that all three books were to deal with different aspects of the wheat growing cycle.