Wuthering Heights was written by Emily Bronte and was actually her only novel. Today it is regarded as one of the top five classics in English Literature. The plot revolves around Heathcliff, his love for Catherine and his thirst for revenge.

Wuthering Heights opens with Lockwood, a tenant of Heathcliff’s, visiting the home of his landlord. A subsequent visit to Wuthering Heights yields an accident and a curious supernatural encounter, which piques Lockwood’s curiosity. Back at Thrushcross Grange and recuperating from his illness, Lockwood begs Nelly Dean, a servant who grew up in Wuthering Heights and now cares for Thrushcross Grange, to tell him of the history of Heathcliff. Nelly narrates the main plot line of Wuthering Heights.

Mr. Earnshaw, a Yorkshire Farmer and owner of Wuthering Heights, brings home an orphan from Liverpool. He names the boy Heathcliff and he is raised with the Earnshaw children, Hindley and Catherine. Catherine loves Heathcliff but Hindley hates him because Heathcliff has replaced Hindley in Mr. Earnshaw’s affection. After Mr. Earnshaw’s death, Hindley does what he can to destroy Heathcliff, but Catherine and Heathcliff grow up playing wildly on the moors, oblivious of anything or anyone else—until they encounter the Lintons.

Edgar and Isabella Linton live at Thrushcross Grange and are the complete opposites of Heathcliff and Catherine. When Catherine is injured one night on the Linton property, the Lintons welcome Catherine into their home but shun Heathcliff. It it during her time with the Linton's that she transforms from the wild girl she used to be into a well behaved, well dressed young lady. Treated as an outsider once again, Heathcliff begins to think about revenge. Catherine, at first, splits her time between Heathcliff and Edgar, but soon she spends more time with Edgar, which makes Heathcliff jealous. When Heathcliff overhears Catherine tell Nelly that Edgar has proposed, and that she can never marry Heathcliff, he leaves Wuthering Heights and is gone for three years. During this period of time, Heathcliff gains wealth and status in a way that is never reavealed to anyone.

While he is gone, Edgar continues to court Catherine and she ends up marrying him. Their happiness is short-lived because they are from two different worlds, and their relationship is strained further when Heathcliff returns. Relationships are complicated even more as Heathcliff winds up living with his enemy, Hindley (and Hindley’s son, Hareton), at Wuthering Heights and implementing his revenge on him till Hindley nearly dies. When he does Heathcliff becomes master of Wuthering Heights and Hindley's son. As part of his revenge on the Lintons, he marries Isabella, Edgar’s sister. Soon after Heathcliff’s marriage, Catherine gives birth to Edgar’s daughter, Cathy, and dies.

Heathcliff vows revenge and does not care who he hurts while executing it. He desires to gain control of Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange and to destroy everything Edgar Linton holds dear. In order to exact his revenge, Heathcliff must wait 17 years. Finally, he forces Cathy to marry his son, Linton. By this time he has control of the Heights and with Edgar’s death, he has control of the Grange.

Through all this, though, the ghost of Catherine haunts Heathcliff. He is never happy. What he truly desires more than anything else is to be reunited with his soul mate. At the end of the story, Catherine and Heathliff are united in death, and Cathy and Hareton are to be united in marriage.