In the morning, Holden negotiates a meeting with Sally Hayes, his acquaintance. He leaves the hotel, delivers the suitcases to the storage room and begins the life of the homeless. He hangs around the cold streets of the big city, then goes along with Sally to the theater. But here he is disappointed: the play seems to him stupid, the audience - a nightmare; The companion also annoys him. And soon there is a quarrel. After the play, Holden and Sally go skating, and here the hero gives vent to the feelings that overflow his soul. He tells the girl about his hatred for everything that irritates him: people, their conversations, deeds ... But the girl does not share his point of view. As a result, they quarrel, and Sally runs away in tears.
The same evening, Holden gets drunk, then wanders alone in the park alone, and it is near the pond with ducks that he drops and breaks the plate bought as a gift to Phoebe's sister. Returning home, the hero finds the house of one Phoebe and hands her fragments from the plate. But the girl is not even angry. Holden talks to her and talks about her dream: "I imagine how little children play in the evening in a huge field in the rye. Thousands of kids, and not a soul around, not one adult, except me ... And my business is to catch kids so they do not break into the abyss. "
Holden lends money to her sister and goes to her former teacher, Mr. Antolini. He arranges it for the night, and in the middle of the night Holden wakes up because the teacher is stroking his forehead. Suspected the teacher of bad intentions, Holden leaves his house. And when he realizes that the teacher had no reason to suspect, he finds an even greater yearning for him.
Holden does not know what to do, and decides to go to the West. He sends Phoebe a note where he asks her to come to the agreed place. Holden wants to return her borrowed money from her. But his little sister appears with a suitcase and declares that he will go to the West with his brother. Cold is touched by her deed. He leads her to the zoo and admires her when she rolls on the carousel. Neither Holden nor Phoebe will not go anywhere.