Dr. Peter Chapman came to Springfield, in May of 1977, to work as the head of Cedars pediatric wing. The son of Max Chapman, the editor and chief of the Springfield Journal, Peter formed friendships with many at Cedars, he began treating young Phillip Spaulding when he was brought into the hospital by his mom, Elizabeth Spaulding. Shortly arriving in town, Peter met Nurse Rita Stapleton during a time when Rita and Dr. Ed Bauer had called off their engagement. Peter started to date Rita. However, Rita started to notice that Peter was much more attracted to Rita's one time nemesis and one of Max's star reporters at the Journal, Holly Norris Bauer, so Rita suggested to Peter that he really should try to see if he had a shot with Holly. That's exactly what Peter did and for awhile Peter and Holly made quite a wonderful pair. It didn't hurt that Peter was a pediatrician and got along famously with Holly's daughter Chrissy, the child from her affair with Roger Thorpe a few years earlier. Actually, Peter was the first man that Chrissy got along with in Holly's life. Meanwhile, Holly's mom, Barbara Norris Thorpe, recovering from her failed marriage to Roger's dad, Adam, began doting on and fell in love with Peter's father, Max. Soon, Max had a heart attack; when Max recovered, he told Peter that he was going to go away to a spa in Europe to relax and to get away from the stress at the Journal. He broke Barbara's heart and asked Holly to take over his duties as Chief Editor at the Journal. Holly obliged Max's wishes, but wished her mom didn't have to be hurt so. Max also suggested to Peter that he needed to make amends with something that had happened to him while Peter was in Santo Domingo in the Peace Corps, Holly overheard this and was very curious as to what Max meant. It didn't take long for Holly to find out.

A few months after Max left for the spa, Peter took a sabbatical from Cedars and asked Holly to go with him to Santo Domingo. Holly agreed since Holly thought it would be romantic and a perfect opportunity to see what made this man tick. Unfortunately, Peter had other things on his mind for this trip and they weighed deeply on him. Shortly after their arrival, a woman named Carmen Monvales confronted the pair with a Santo Domingo police officer and insisted that the officer arrest Peter for murder! After telling Carmen that she had no proof, Peter, later told Holly the whole story. Peter told Holly that when he was in the Peace Corps, he met a woman named Maya Waterman. The pair became engaged and, later, Peter, a deep sea snorkeler, met Maya's younger sister, Linette who persuaded Peter to let her go snorkeling with him. Unfortunately, during Linette and Peter's snorkeling trip, things suddenly went awry. Linette, being inexperienced, didn't properly hook up the oxygen on her snorkeling mask and ended up drowning. Despite the fact that Maya tried to persuade Peter that Linette's death was not his fault, Peter felt nothing but guilt for causing Linette's death. This guilt crushed Peter and that's why Peter had broken off the engagement with Maya.

At this point, Holly and Peter met up with Maya and Maya decided to have the Santo Domingo authorities launch an investigation into whether her former fiancé was really guilty of murdering her younger sister. The investigation itself revealed that on that fateful deep-sea snorkeling expedition that involved Peter, Carmen, Linette and the pilot of the boat that they were on, that Linette had failed to heed either Peter or the pilot's advice about how to hook up her oxygen mask correctly and that was what caused Linette's accidental death. After the investigation concluded, Peter's guilt was finally lifted. Unfortunately, for Holly it didn't take much for her to see that Peter was still very much in love with Maya, despite his protest to the contrary. Holly left on an airplane, alone, back to Springfield. Despite his continuing feelings for her, Peter told Maya that his life and career were back in Springfield and he, too, quickly followed Holly on another plane

As for Holly, in the wake of her failed relationship with Peter, she decided to marry Roger Thorpe, the father of her child. Unfortunately for Holly, that was a huge mistake and Roger ended up raping her. Holly, with Ed Bauer's encouragement, charged Roger with marital rape. At the same time, she contacted Peter to express her sorrow about how their relationship ended. Although Peter was flattered that Holly wanted him back in her life, he could tell that she was only using him as a lifeline, after her disastrous marriage to Roger. Later, during the trial, Holly walked in on Ed and Roger fighting, and fearing for Ed's safety, she grabbed a gun and shot Roger three times. Roger was then declared dead and Holly was sent to prison. Having promised Holly that he would stand by her, Peter got a job at the prison infirmary. Peter and Holly worked together in the prison infirmary where Peter fell back in love with her. However, Holly was being bullied by another inmate named Gail. Gail was extremely jealous of Holly's relationship with Peter and her "cushy" job in the infirmary. One day, Gail and Holly's cellmate, Carla, got in a fight and Gail pulled out a knife. Holly begged Gail to put away the knife but Gail ended up stabbing Holly in the abdomen. Peter had Holly sent to Cedars Hospital for treatment. Mike Bauer (Holly's lawyer) got a temporary injunction so that Holly wouldn't have to go right back to prison. Meanwhile, Mike believed Roger was still alive. Mike was proven correct when Roger returned to town and kidnapped Rita.

Holly was finally cleared of Roger's murder and released from prison. Knowing that Roger wanted to kidnap Chrissy, Holly fled to Santa Domingo. Unfortunately, Roger found her and, eventually, chased her through the jungles of the island before, apparently, falling to his death. Shaken by her harrowing ordeal, Holly broke things off with Peter. At about the same time, Peter got a call from Maya asking to renew their engagement. Since his relationship with Holly was over, Peter did just that.