[PART I] Braving her father Edgar Linton's warning not to cross the estate border, young Catherine discovers her charming, but sickly cousin, and the manly Hareton are the heartlessly scorned and abused sons of wealthy Heatcliff on the Earnshaw estate. This launches a flashback how Heathcliff was raised as Cathy's best friend by her kind father, Mr. Earnshaw. After his death, the son and heir returns from boarding school, married, and reduces Heathcliff to the rank of stable boy, enduring constant abuse in order to remain with Cathy. After an accidental meeting with elegant gentleman Edgar Linton, she falls in love. To Hindley's delight, this drives Heathcliffe away. [PART II] Three years later, he returns wealthy enough to buy the estate, a day after Kathy married Edgar. He takes revenge, which instead of satisfaction brings misery to all. After Kathy and later Edga's death, his scorn includes the next generation, which nevertheless finds each-other striving for nobler values.

Each Thursday, a man approaching middle age calls upon his father, aged, caustic, nihilistic, and emotionally distant, perhaps from the loss of a son in the Boer War and his wife soon after. On this day, the son suggests they attend a visiting guru's lecture on the transmigration of souls. There they chat with a vicar and a soldier of fortune; dinner follows. Over glasses of Hungarian Tokay, the vicar, Dean Spanley, tells a story of friendship, freedom, and reincarnation. In what earthly way could this tale connect father and son?