Emails sent to non-existent email in domain

Emails sent to non-existent email in domain

What happens to an email which is sent to an email address which does not exist in a domain?  For example, an email is sent to john@example.com but john@example.com is not set up as an email address for example.com.  Can the email be sent to another email in the domain or are the emails rejected and a message sent back to the sender?  Thanks.