In 1987 Harlem, 16-year-old Claireece Jones, who goes by her middle name, Precious, is illiterate, overweight, and pregnant--for the second time, by the same man: her biological father, who has molested and raped her since she was a child, but whom she doesn't see otherwise. Her infant daughter, nicknamed Mongo because she has Down Syndrome, lives with Precious' grandmother; Precious herself lives with her mother Mary, who abuses her physically and emotionally. Mary does nothing but smoke, watch TV, and collect welfare through fraud (she doesn't even look for jobs) and believes that education does nothing for Precious; she would rather have Precious also collect welfare, if only to bring money into the household. To escape her life, Precious daydreams of herself in glamorous situations. Because of her current pregnancy, Precious' principal transfers her into an alternative school, where sympathetic teacher Miss Blu Rain tries to convince her that she can have a future if she learns how to read and write, and Precious starts to believe her. Despite devastating news from her mother following her baby's birth, Precious also starts to believe that she can escape the grip of her abusive mother--who, up to this point, was Precious' only real support.