'The Octopus' Summary

The Octopus depicts the conflict between wheat farmers in the southern San Joaquin Valley and the fictional Pacific and Southwestern railroad (P&SW). The main nearby town is the fictional Bonneville.

The league persuades Derrick to participate in secretly bribing state legislators and installing Derrick's lawyer son, Lyman, on the railroad board. All goes for nought, however, as the railroads have secretly agreed to support Lyman's bid for governor. Lyman, violating his promise to the league, declines to reduce tariffs for Tulare County wheat.

Dyke, a railroad engineer, dotes on his daughter, Sidney, and his mother. Dyke is fired for refusing to take a pay cut. He decides to raise hops, but is ruined when the railroad raises the tariff for shipping them. After robbing a train, he eludes capture, but is eventually caught.

When the community comes together to drive jack rabbits from Osterman's ranch, Behrman, Delaney and Christia -- agents of the railroad -- assisted by U.S. marshals, seize Annixter's ranch. Members of the league ride off to thwart the seizure of Derrick's ranch. In the gunfight that ensues, Osterman, Broderson, Harran Derrick -- Magnus's son -- and Hooven are all instantly killed or mortally wounded. Shortly afterward, Annixter's young widow, Hilma, suffers a miscarriage. Presley, the poet, throws a bomb made by the Communist bar-owner Caraher into Berman's home, but Berman escapes unscathed.

In a meeting into the Bonneville opera house, other members of the league counsel caution. Derrick arrives and is about to speak when provocateurs distribute freshly printed copies of the local newspaper, which has a front-page story revealing Derrick's participation in the league's bribery. Derrick is ruined.

Dyke is tried and sentenced to life in prison.

Mrs. Hooven and her daughters, 19-year-old Minna and 6-year-old Hilda, move to San Francisco, where they become separated and destitute. Minna is lured into prostitution and Mrs. Hooven dies of starvation. Presley, determined to help them, arrives too late.

In San Francisco, Presley attends a sumptuous dinner, courtesy of his businessman friend Cedarquist, who secures Presley passage on an India-bound ship. Cedarquist's wife, moved by Presley's poem 'The Toilers,' raises money to send a shipload of wheat for famine relief to India.

Behrman, now in possession of Derrick's farm, harvests the wheat Derrick raised and sells it to Mrs. Cedarquist's famine-relief effort. He goes to Port Costa to see the wheat from his grain elevator loaded on the India-bound Swanhilda. While relishing the sight of the wheat cascading into the ship's hold, he trips and falls in, where the wheat buries him. Later, Presley, on board the same ship, watches the California coast receding from view.