Algiers, 1938. Meursault, a quiet and unassuming man in his early thirties, attends his mother's funeral without shedding a tear. The next day, he begins a casual affair with Marie, a colleague, and quickly slips back into his routine. But his seemingly indifferent existence is soon disrupted by his neighbour, Raymond Sintes, who draws Meursault into his murky affairs - until, on one blisteringly hot day, a tragic event unfolds on a sun-drenched beach.
