On the evening after Edgar Linton’s funeral, Cathy Linton and Nelly Dean sit in the Grange library grieving and speculating about Cathy’s future. They hope, though doubtfully, that Heathcliff might allow Cathy to remain at Thrushcross Grange with Linton brought to her and Nelly kept as housekeeper.

Heathcliff enters without ceremony, acting as master of the house. He orders Cathy to come “home” to Wuthering Heights and says Linton has been punished for helping Cathy escape: Heathcliff did not physically strike the frail young man, but so terrified him that Linton now wakes screaming and calling for Cathy. Nelly pleads that Cathy and Linton be allowed to live at the Grange, but Heathcliff refuses, saying he is seeking a tenant and intends to keep his “children” under his control.

Cathy defies Heathcliff, insisting that Linton is now the only person she loves and that Heathcliff cannot force them to hate each other. Heathcliff counters that Linton’s own bitterness and weakness will torment Cathy better than Heathcliff can. Cathy then attacks Heathcliff’s loneliness, telling him no one loves him and no one will mourn him, which momentarily gives her a grim sense of revenge.

While Cathy prepares to leave, Nelly asks to replace Zillah at Wuthering Heights so she can stay near Cathy, but Heathcliff refuses. Looking at the portrait of Catherine Earnshaw Linton, Heathcliff says he intends to take it home and then reveals that he has opened Catherine’s coffin. He explains that he bribed the sexton to loosen the side of her coffin and eventually his own, so that after death their remains may mingle while Edgar Linton remains excluded.

Heathcliff then describes the eighteen years since Catherine’s death as a torment of ghostly longing. On the night of her burial he tried to dig down to her coffin, but felt her presence above the grave and abandoned the attempt; since then he has believed she haunted him without ever fully appearing. Seeing her body again has partly calmed him, though his obsession remains intense and consuming.

Cathy returns ready to leave, but Heathcliff denies her use of her pony and says her own feet will serve at Wuthering Heights. Cathy gives Nelly a cold, fearful farewell and asks Nelly to visit, but Heathcliff forbids it. He takes Cathy’s arm and hurries her out of the Grange, leaving Nelly watching as Cathy is carried into Heathcliff’s control.