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The Stranger Synopsis

Plot summary
The novel tells the story of a man, Meursault (not to be confused with Patrice Mersault, from Camus' first novel A Happy Death), who eventually kills a man. The story continues as Meursault waits to be executed. The book uses a pre-World War II Algerian setting drawn from Camus's own upbringing.
At the start of the novel, Meursault attends his mother's funeral, where he does not express any usual emotions that such an event often induces. He is asked to see the body of his mother but refuses to do so. The novel goes on to document the next few days of his life through the first person point-of-view. He then befriends one of his neighbours, Raymond Sintès, whom Meursault aids in dismissing his Arab girlfriend because Raymond suspects her of infidelity. Later, Raymond and Meursault encounter her brothers on a beach. Raymond gets cut in a resulting knife fight. After retreating, Meursault returns to the beach and shoots one of them in response to the glare of the sun. Consequently, "The Arab" is killed. Meursault then fires four more times into the dead body.
At the trial, the prosecuting attorneys seem more interested in the inability or unwillingness of Meursault to cry at his mother's funeral than the murder of The Arab, because they don't believe him capable of remorse. The argument follows that if Meursault is incapable of remorse, he should be considered a dangerous misanthrope who should be executed in order to set an example for others who consider murder.
As the novel comes to a close, Meursault meets with a chaplain and becomes enraged by the chaplain's insistence that he turn to God. The novel ends with Meursault recognizing the universe's indifference toward humankind. The final lines echo his new realization: "As if that blind rage had washed me clean, rid me of hope; for the first time, in that night alive with signs and stars, I opened myself to the gentle indifference of the world. Finding it so much like myself — so like a brother,...