Ferber's first big success as a writer came with the character Emma McChesney, a plucky, self-made businesswoman. This volume, published in 1914, is the second in a trilogy that begins with Roast Beef, Medium (1913) and finishes with Emma McChesney and Co. (1915). In this book, Emma's twenty-one-year-old son, Jock, comes to the fore.