Part One Summary:

Meursault, a man detached from conventional emotional responses, receives news of his mother's death. He travels to the old people's home, observes the rituals of mourning with indifference, and returns to Algiers the very next day. He begins a relationship with Marie Cardona and gets entangled in the affairs of his neighbor, Raymond Sintès, who has a violent altercation with his mistress's brother. This culminates in Meursault's impulsive act of shooting and killing the man on the beach.