Hard Kisses, Bitter Tearsfollows a ten-year span in the life of an eighteen-year-old Belarussian youth from 1935 through 1945. Though it is essentially a saga of Larion Daneelivich Sulupins personal life, it is set against the tumultuous internal events of Stalins pre-World War II Soviet Russia and Larions journey through the subsequent world war. Larions discovery of love at first sight is interrupted and then threatened by the outbreak of war. Will Larion ever reunite with his young wife, Tamara, and family? Will they be able to survive the war? With the end of war looming, it is not certain whether the Red Army or