The book centres around the friendship of two dogs that escape an animal testing facility and are subsequently pursued by both the government and the media.

The conclusion of the book involves two real-life characters, Adams' long-time friend Ronald Lockley, and the world-famous naturalist Sir Peter Scott.

This book tells of the escape of two dogs, Rowf and Snitter, from a government research station in the Lake District in England, where they had been horribly mistreated.

After the starving dogs attack some sheep on the fells, they are reported as ferocious man-eating monsters by an opportunistic journalist.

Like its predecessor Watership Down, Martin Rosen directed and adapted The Plague Dogs into an animated feature film, which was released in 1982.