Can Christians suffer from depression? Maybe so. The Precious Prize unfolds as a story of what happens when Joya Moore - a beautiful wife and mother of two young children- who has mysteriously suffered each year with acute sadness for the entire month of June attempts to find out why. Joya is convinced that contrary to the platitudes of well-meaning church folks, depression is not an indication of a lack of faith. Readers are drawn into Joya's quest as it leads her through an intense, roller coaster week that zigzags from painful recollections of her past uncovered in two pastoral care therapy sessions. She encounters conflict, deception and office politics in her present and a series of alarmingly mysterious dreams that may affect her future. She believes that her first weird dream could be a metaphor or a parable that God is using to tell her something. Bit by bit the complex layers of her personality are exposed through the technique of narrative therapy to examine her early relationship with her handsome husband William Xavier Moore III. He appears to be a self-absorbed entrepreneur and CEO of a thriving engineering consulting firm in Atlanta whose actions almost cost him his marriage, his business, and his very soul.
Joya must settle once and for all her doubts about her husband's love and commitment to their marriage. Starting from the point of thirteen years ago after a bitter break up with William that caused everything to drastically spiral from the course she had supposed, Joya recalls her life and talks about her feelings. To cope with her heartache and disappointment in the past, she ran away and immersed herself in a month-long trip to Europe through her job as an international marketing intern for Ritz-Carlton. We meet Joya's family and learn of her early life growing up in Orlando, Florida, her friends and frienemy and of her whirlwind, albeit short-lived romance with an NBA franchise player. Joya must confront the demons of her past as she revisits deep secrets of adultery, backstabbing, betrayal, deception, envy, false relationships, jealousy, and tragedy. She is compelled to examine her faith in the Lord, her marriage, her career and where life is leading her as she discovers who her true friends are, who she can call on for prayer and guidance and who she needs to avoid. As the unusual week draws to a close, Joya questions her grip on reality. Between the therapy and the dreams, she realizes that she needs God's guidance like never before.
The surprise twist at the end tells of the terrible secret Joya had suppressed in her subconscious and how she ends up as a multi-millionaire!.