Pecola Breedlove, a young black girl, prays every day for beauty.

Mocked by other children for the dark skin, curly hair, and brown eyes that set her apart, she yearns for normalcy, for the blond hair and blue eyes that she believes will allow her to finally fit in.Yet as her dream grows more fervent, her life slowly starts to disintegrate in the face of adversity and strife.

A powerful examination of our obsession with beauty and conformity, Toni Morrison' s virtuosic first novel asks powerful questions about race, class, and gender with the subtlety and grace that have always characterized her writing.