Welcome to Willard, a small town lost in the idyllic world of the 50's, where the sun shines every day, everybody knows their neighbour, and rotting zombies carry the mail. Years ago, the earth passed through a cloud of space dust, causing the dead to rise with an insatiable hunger for human flesh. Terror spread across the land, until a collar was invented that made the zombies docile, even useful. A company was born: ZomCon. Thanks to their patented domestication collar™, zombies became gardeners, milkmen, butlers, and even pets. ZomCon would like everyone to believe that they have the world under control - but do they?

Timmy Robinson doesn't think so. He thinks the world is "phony-baloney". An awkward loner, Timmy spends so much time in his room, even his own parents don't notice him. So when Mom buys a zombie to help around the house, Timmy is surprised, and even curious, when the beast wants to play catch. As the pair plays baseball in the park, the zombie saves Timmy from the local bullies. A true friendship is born and Timmy names the zombie, "Fido". But Fido's collar goes on the fritz, and Timmy's cranky old neighbor Mrs. Henderson pays the ultimate price. That night, Timmy sneaks back to the park to bury her, but discovers it's too late - she's already turned into a flesh-crazed zombie! In a fight to the finish, he chops off her head with a shovel and buries her in a flowerbed.

To complicate matters, ZomCon's notorious zombie-control specialist, Mr. Bottoms, has moved in across the street - soon becoming Timmy and Fido's worst nightmare. Lucky for Timmy, Bottoms' daughter Cindy has a crush on him, and becomes a valuable ally. Timmy causes mayhem as he fights to keep Fido a member of the family. Mom and Dad are divided on what to think of Timmy's new best friend, and it isn't long before Dad puts his foot down. So when it's discovered what really happened to Mrs. Henderson, Timmy is forced to take Fido to the only place that he'd be safe, past where the cornfields end, across the river to the mythical "Wild Zone".

But Fido is captured and enslaved at ZomCon. In a final, risk-all adventure, Timmy, Mom, and even Dad, rescue Fido from the dark forces of ZomCon. Fido returns to his place in the Robinson family, and the Robinsons, oddly enough, learn from a dead man what it really means to be alive.