 Stu Miley is a cartoonist who created a comic strip called Monkeybone which features the rascal monkey of the same name. Stu is in love with a sleep institute worker named Dr. Julie McElroy. When it came to the night where he was going to propose to her, a freak accident happens and Stu falls into a coma. His spirit ends up in Downtown: a purgatory limbo-like existence between life and death. Downtown is a carnival landscape populated by other people, mythical creatures, and other figments and this is where nightmares are entertainment. This is where Monkeybone comes to life and stirs up trouble for Stu. Also, Stu befriends a cat-girl named Kitty. When Stu learns that his sister Kimmy is about to pull the plug on him, he asks Hypnos: The God of Sleep what to do. Hypnos tells Stu that to get back to the living, he has to steal an Exit Pass from Death who lives in the Land of Death. However, Monkeybone and Hypnos have their own agenda with Stu s body when it comes to making nightmares.