These Precious Days emerged after Patchett penned the title essay and decided she wanted to house it in a book. The essay's subject is Patchett’s close friend and artist, Sooki Raphael, who eventually dies from pancreatic cancer. The essay details the story of their friendship, even as Sooki battles cancer in the early months of the pandemic. The context and circumstances within which the piece is written deeply inform the themes Patchett arrives at in this essay and the rest of the collection. As the world is plunged into uncertainty and loved ones are disconnected and isolated from each other, Patchett receives a rare opportunity to spend precious time with a friend. Patchett comes to appreciate this, especially with Sooki’s days being numbered, and reflects on the most important things in life. She comes to see time spent with loved ones as one of them; thus, ideas about relationships and community form a central theme of this book.

Patchett includes other pieces about the important people in her life in this collection. She writes about her father, stepfathers, mother, husband, close friends, and dogs. The pieces that center around a loved one (“Three Fathers,” “Sisters,” “Tavia”) present a profile of the person in question.