Daru, a French school-teacher goes about his day teaching geography to the Algerian children from nearby villages, playing with them, and giving grain to their families.

One of Daru's acquaintances shows up to his isolated schoolhouse to warn him about rising tensions between the Algerian resistance and the French regime.

He claims that he is unable to, due to there being a lack of forces to prevent a potential uprising in the town of El Ameur.

Despite Mohamed having killed his cousin over the theft of grain, Daru insists that it is out of the question for him to take the man to the authorities as they will most probably sentence him to death without much deliberation.

Daru proceeds to pack essentials for the trek but just as they are about to leave, they are met with a group of Frenchmen searching for a man guilty of slaughtering their cattle.

Several hours of walking later, a heavy rain settles and the duo rush back to an abandoned village they had passed by earlier to take shelter and stay warm.

After having spent the night at the abandoned village, the pair are once again met with a group of armed men riding horses.

While held captive at the rebel base camp, Daru takes note of a man who he recognized to have been an old friend from his days in the infantry.

Daru, who had no intention to take part in any war, was caught aback by this as he had lived all of his life in Algeria and had no qualms with either side.

In order to adapt "The Guest", a short story of 8 pages, into a feature-length film, Oelhoffen took numerous liberties in regards to how the plot, characters, and themes are presented.

[6] Furthermore, new characters, such as Slimane, Rene, and Lieutenant Le Tallec, are introduced holding minor roles in the overarching story.

In turn, they present the plot with twists such as Daru and Mohamed being held hostage by the Algerian rebels and consequently French troops.

[8] In contrast, the film shows Daru actively harboring empathy and care for Mohamed whilst being unable to choose a side in the war.

This all paints Daru as a morally correct protagonist with little to no flaws[9] as opposed to Camus' depiction of an indecisive man, caught between his racial prejudice and his principles.

Originally, the short story depicts Mohamed to be a complacent individual who has no say in deciding his fate as it is Daru who makes all his decisions and orders him around.

On the other hand, Oelhoffen's Mohamed starts out similar to Camus' "Arab" but over time develops self-determination and a sense of honor and pride.

[7] Examples of this would be his verbal retaliation directed at Daru after he called him a coward and also his plan of getting caught in order to spare his family trouble.

His self-determination is even made explicit when it is shown that he discovered his own worth after choosing to follow the path leading to the Nomads, and in turn freedom.

In "The Guest", Camus portrays Daru's decision (or lack of one) at the end of the story to be a meaningless one since regardless of what he chooses to do, it can be inferred that he will meet the same fate - death.

[6][11] Oelhoffen, in turn, decides to challenge this grim end by showing that both Daru and Mohamed can in fact find a happiness despite all their struggles.

[13] According to Manohla Dargis of The New York Times, "Camus sets the movie's initial course, but Mr. Oelhoffen resolutely steers it home with political context, historical hindsight, an unambiguous moral imperative and a pair of well-matched performances.