Meursault receives a telegram informing him that his mother has died at the retirement home outside Algiers.

Meursault takes a bus to the retirement home and is greeted by the warden, who brings him to the coffin.

Meursault keeps an overnight vigil beside his mother's closed coffin alongside a group of elderly residents from the home.

The funeral procession walks in scorching heat toward the church; elderly Thomas Perez repeatedly falls behind and takes shortcuts to keep up.

Meursault returns to Algiers, goes to the harbor swimming pool, and reconnects with his former coworker Marie Cardona.

Raymond Sintes asks Meursault to write a letter to trick his Algerian mistress into returning so he can humiliate her.

Sintes beats his mistress so badly that someone calls the police to the apartment building.

Meursault gives a false witness statement to police, claiming that Sintes's mistress was unfaithful.

Sintes, Meursault, and Marie travel to Masson's beach bungalow and are followed by a group of Algerian youths.

During a beach confrontation, the Arab draws a knife and slashes Sintes's arm and face before the youths flee.

Sintes returns to the beach with a gun and threatens to shoot the Arab; Meursault talks him down and takes the weapon.

Walking alone on the beach, Meursault encounters the Arab again and shoots him five times.

Meursault is arrested; the magistrate brandishes a crucifix and begs God's forgiveness when Meursault admits he is an atheist.

The prosecutor delivers a closing argument calling Meursault a soulless, remorseless monster and demands the death penalty.

The jury finds Meursault guilty of murder and sentences him to death by guillotine.

Pool 1 follows Meursault through the central spine of the story, from the telegram announcing his mother's death to his conviction for murder. After a detached funeral, Meursault falls into a routine with Marie and becomes entangled in Raymond Sintes's violent scheme against his mistress. A beach trip turns deadly when Meursault shoots a young Algerian Arab, setting off his arrest and trial. In court, the prosecutor weaponizes Meursault's emotional indifference to argue that he is a danger to society, treating his behavior at the funeral as more damning than the killing itself. The trial exposes how Meursault's detachment from social norms is treated as a greater crime than the act of murder. The jury ultimately sentences him to death, sealing the absurdist arc of a man condemned not for what he did, but for who he is.

The headline events driving Meursault from his mother's death to his execution verdict.

Meursault asks his employer for two days off to attend his mother's funeral and feels guilty for his own embarrassment.

When offered the chance to open his mother's coffin, Meursault declines without knowing why.

During the overnight vigil, an elderly woman sobs loudly for Meursault's mother, annoying Meursault despite being her closest friend.

After his mother's burial, Meursault boards the bus back to Algiers feeling relieved and happy to be going home.

Marie notices Meursault's black mourning tie at the swimming pool; he explains his mother died recently.

Meursault and his coworker Emmanuel jump on the back of a passing truck to get to Celeste's restaurant for lunch.

Meursault meets his neighbor Salamano on the staircase, constantly cursing at his scabby, diseased old spaniel.

After Salamano's dog goes missing, Meursault hears the old man weeping through the thin apartment walls.

Meursault's employer offers him a promotion and transfer to the Paris office, which Meursault accepts with complete indifference.

Marie asks Meursault whether he would marry her; he says he does not mind if that is what she wants.

After dinner at Celeste's, Meursault follows a precise, robotic little woman through the streets but cannot keep pace.

Salamano confirms his dog has likely died and reveals he got the animal for companionship after his wife passed away.

Meursault is placed in a crowded jail cell and confesses to his Arab cellmates that he killed one of their people.

Marie visits Meursault in prison, urging him to stay hopeful and promising they will swim and marry when he is freed.

Sintes testifies at the trial; the prosecutor exposes his profession as a pimp to discredit him before the jury.

Pool 2 captures the texture of Meursault's daily life in Algiers, from his awkward request for funeral leave to his routines with neighbors and coworkers. It traces the small but telling moments that define his relationships: his first swimming encounter with Marie, his indifference to a Paris promotion, and his detached observation of Salamano's grief over a lost dog. These scenes establish the social world Meursault moves through without truly engaging, and which will later be used against him in court. The pool also covers his early prison experience, including his interactions with Arab cellmates and Marie's hopeful visit behind bars. It concludes with Sintes's damaging courtroom testimony, showing how Meursault's associations become evidence of his moral character.

The supporting scenes and relationships that fill out Meursault's world.

The warden offers Meursault one final chance to view his mother's body before the funeral; Meursault declines.

After their cinema date, Marie spends the night with Meursault and leaves early the next morning for church.

Meursault spends all of Sunday watching neighbors from his balcony and reflects that nothing has changed since his mother's death.

Sintes calls Meursault at work to warn him that Algerian men, including his mistress's brother, have been following him.

Meursault and Marie swim far out to sea together at the beach before the violent confrontation with the Arabs begins.

Walking alone under the brutal afternoon sun, Meursault encounters the Arab, who draws his knife as blinding light flashes off the blade.

Meursault's lawyer reveals that police investigations found he showed great callousness at his mother's funeral.

After months of failed interviews, the magistrate takes to calling Meursault 'Monsieur Antichrist' and stops raising religion.

Meursault finds a torn newspaper scrap under his cell mattress and obsessively re-reads the story of the Czech man killed by his own family.

Meursault receives a letter from Marie explaining she is no longer permitted to visit since she is not his wife.

During the trial, Meursault suddenly grasps that many people in the hot, crowded courtroom genuinely hate him.

The prosecutor argues that Meursault's callous behavior at his mother's funeral proves he is a criminal at heart.

Meursault attempts to speak in his own defense at trial but delivers a confused, slurring statement that no one understands.

The chaplain visits Meursault's cell unannounced; Meursault erupts in fury, shouting insults until guards rush in to restrain him.

Near dawn, Meursault thinks of his mother for the first time in months and opens himself to the gentle indifference of the universe.

Pool 3 traces the pivotal choices and revelations that redirect the story at every stage, from Meursault's quiet refusal to see his mother one last time to his explosive confrontation with the prison chaplain. Early events show Meursault drifting through life without intention, while the beach sequence builds toward the fateful moment he pulls the trigger under a blinding sun. In prison, his lawyer's discovery of the funeral conduct reports and the magistrate's theological obsession reveal how society will frame his crime. The trial sections show the prosecutor connecting Meursault's coldness at his mother's funeral directly to the murder as proof of a criminal mind. The pool closes with Meursault's furious outburst at the chaplain followed by a dawn awakening in which he finally accepts the indifference of the universe and finds a strange peace in his fate.

The decisions, discoveries, and emotional shifts that determine Meursault's fate.