Claireece "Precious" Jones is a 16-year-old girl from Harlem.
She lives with her mother, an invalid, and her father, a drug addict. She is obese, illiterate, and pregnant with her second child by her own father who has repeatedly raped and abused her since she was seven years old. She has also been to a lesser extent constantly abused mentally and physically by her mother and her first child suffering from Down Syndrome lives with her Grandmother.

She is kicked out of school when that pregnancy becomes obvious. Placed in an alternative teaching programme, she is urged to write down her thoughts in a book.

This is Precious' diary, in which she honestly records her relationships and her life. Told with tremendous power, vitality and wit; this is an uncompromising and hugely enjoyable novel.

Her defences and her world unravel as she struggles to gain control of her own life.