The Year of the Sword deals with a critical period in the lives of the Pulichever family. It is set in the midst of the dreadful catastrophe that befell the Jewish people in Poland over three hundred years ago, a catastrophe that is all but forgotten. It is a story about the violent pogroms that characterized the Cossack uprisings of 5408 (1648) and 5409 (1649), the infamous years of Tach and Tat, as they have become known in Jewish history. The suffering of the Jewish people during the Cossack insurrections defies description. Two thirds of the Jews of the Kingdom of Poland perished under the Cossacks sword, and the remnants were totally demoralized. The Golden Age of Polish Jewry came to a bloody and abrupt end