Coal starts at the bottom-in the basement of an old Seattle house-where Ken, a 42-year-old bachelor, stumbles across a box of letters that his sister Cole kept over the years. The discovery brings Ken back to the day Cole died eight years ago. Emotions come like a flood, and suddenly Ken-having moved back to the empty family home after years of bouncing through relationships and life in general-has a plan. But Ken is unprepared for Carol, the seemingly upright nurse who turns out to be a little more on the wild side than first appears. And as he learns more about Carol, and himself, and his sister’s past, he pokes determinedly at the smoldering coals of spirit that push us to hope and live and to make hurtful mistakes. It is here, in the lessons learned from the aging of wood and wine and the fragile unpredictability of life that Ken realizes where real beauty resides. And so, despite having spent years stumbling through many relationships, he is intent on finding real love and a peaceful life. Sort of.