hard plight

Mr. Putin has to be aware of the power, for example, of the folk singer Vladimir Vysotsky, who became an underground icon in the 1970s with his songs about the hard plight of ordinary people.

Quandary, kwon-dā′ri, or kwon′da-ri, n. a state of difficulty or uncertainty: a hard plight.

Some heroes in this hard plight would have thrown up the leek, but Mr Bhosh was stuffed with sterner materials.

Toby was in a hard plight as it was; but without the old monkey for a companion he would have thought his condition was a hundred times worse, and would hardly have had the courage to go on as he was going.

She was filled with commiseration for her own hard plight...