Assumed French by birth or descent, the couple live an isolated life in Algeria, neither of them speaking the native Arabic language.
In her thoughts Janine portrays a negative image of her husband who she sees as inert and tied up with his work, having relinquished the passions and ambitions that he possessed as a youth when they met.
At this point the narrative becomes increasingly dramatic and sensual as Janine runs around the fort feeling charged with life, eventually ending up lying on her back beneath the stars.
The title of the story is taken from John 8:3-11 - The Adulterous Woman, in which a mob brings an adulteress before Jesus for judgment, the usual punishment for adultery being death by stoning.
By the end of the story, Janine is only guilty of the thought but it is not clear if she will take further action on her frustration or if she is prepared to go back to how things were before and accept her life.
Early in the story, Janine reflects on her adolescence and the period when she met her husband and the choice she had at that time between security and independence.
Reacting to various events in the story, Janine's perception of herself changes from awareness of her weight and poor physical condition to pride in still being attractive to other men.
Throughout the story, Janine is recurringly repelled by her husband because of his inherent inertness, advancing age and lack of vitality.
This is described in an erotic manner, as if her adultery took place not with another man, but with the night itself in a temporarily empowering liberation from her constricting, married, subservient, and following life.
That night, lying in bed next to her husband, she breaks with his narrow neediness and feels called back to the vastness of the desert, as seen from atop the fort.
As with other works of Camus, "The Adulterous Woman" is set in Algeria but native Algerians play no significant part in the story.