What is "The Guest" by Albert Camus about?

"The Guest" by Albert Camus is a short story set during the Algerian War and tells the tale of an Algerian schoolteacher named Daru, who is faced with a moral dilemma. The French gendarmerie gives Daru the responsibility of delivering an Arab prisoner to the nearby city for the crime of murder. The story revolves around the themes of freedom, choice, and responsibility as Daru is torn between his duty to the state and his own moral values of treating the prisoner as a human being.

Conflicted, Daru does not want to be involved in the fate of the Arab prisoner. Despite feeling uninvolved in the conflict between the French and Arabs, he is unwillingly drawn into it. After spending the night at the schoolhouse, Daru provides the prisoner with money and food and sets him free, offering him the choice to head toward the police station or to freedom in the desert. However, the prisoner chooses to turn himself in. The story ends with Daru returning to his classroom to find a threatening message on the blackboard suggesting that he will pay for having turned in the Arab, highlighting the ambiguity and complexity of human choices and the inescapable consequences of our actions.