Summary
Precious is just a small child when her mother starts abusing her and her father starts raping her. At twelve, she becomes pregnant by her father, and is held back in school. Precious has a baby girl who has Down Syndrome. The baby is being raised by Precious's grandmother, but Precious's mother, who refers to the baby as Lil' Mongo, continues to collect welfare money for both Precious and the baby.
When Precious was having her daughter, she remembers that one of the paramedics told her to 'Push'. It becomes her inner mantra, something she tells herself when she faces hard times (which, for Precious, is all the time).
Because of her atrocious home life, Precious is a terrible student, who struggles with self esteem and reading in particular. She is afraid to speak up for herself and will urinate in her seat rather than ask to use the bathroom. She is bullied by the other students for being fat, black, and stupid.
At age 16, Precious is pregnant again by her father and in the 9th grade. She is called to the office, where the guidance counselor kicks her out of school, but tells her about an alternative program for girls like her. Precious's mother is against her attending the school, but Precious wants to learn and find a way out of her situation.
At the alternative school, called Each One Teach One, Precious meets her teacher, Ms. Rain. Ms. Rain quickly realizes the problems Precious has with reading and starts a journal with her. Precious writes her thoughts down, and the teacher responds as well as corrects her grammar and spelling. This way, Precious learns to read and write.
Precious fits in well with the students at her new school, who also have terrible home lives. She makes friends for the first time in her life, and the other students tell her they love her poetry.
After Precious's baby, Abdul, is born, Precious and her newborn son move into a halfway house to get away from her mother. Soon after, Precious learns that her father has died of AIDS. She is terrified, and gets herself and the baby tested. Abdul is lucky and escapes the disease, but Precious is HIV positive.
She wants to give up and feels like she has an incurable time bomb ticking away inside her. But her teacher and friends at Each One Teach One convince her not to. She begins attending support groups. Precious decides she wants to live and eventually have both her children live with her.