Courage the Cowardly Dog follows a

Courage the Cowardly Dog follows a dog named Courage, an easily frightened canine who lives in a farmhouse with Muriel and Eustace Bagge near the fictional town of Nowhere, Kansas. Abandoned as a puppy, Courage was found in an alleyway by Muriel, a sweet-natured Scottish woman, who fell in love with the pink puppy, and her husband Eustace, a grouchy, selfish, greedy farmer who constantly harasses Courage.

Courage, Muriel, and Eustace frequently run into monsters, aliens, demons, mad scientists, zombies, and other supernatural perils from myths and legends that Courage must fend off to save his owners, unbeknownst to them. Although most of the creatures that the three face are frightening or disturbing, some turn out to be sweet and simply in distress. The plot generally uses horror conventions, common to horror films.

Although episodic in nature, there are a handful of recurring characters in the show's cast, including Courage's sarcastic, sentient computer, the family physician Dr. Vindaloo, the Gypsy fortune-telling chihuahua Shirley the Medium, Eustace's mother 'Ma', and recurring villains, such as Katz and Le Quack.