Psychologist Sara McIntyre arrived at Cedar's Hospital in 1967. Born of a wealthy family, Sara was determined to make a name for herself in medicine and saw her career as the most important thing in her life. An old girlfriend of Dr. Paul Fletcher, Sara tried to avoid relationships. Her first clients upon arriving in town were the teenaged Peggy Scott, who'd lost both of her parents and Bert Bauer after her husband had presumably died in an airplane crash. Not long after arriving in town, Sara was shocked when a young woman arrived claiming to be her presumed dead niece, Tracey Delmar. Though skeptical at first, she soon became convinced and welcomed Tracey into her home. Not long after, Sara was heartbroken, in 1969, to learn that the young woman wasn't her niece, but a con woman named Charlotte Waring.

On her guard, Sara refused to open herself up emotionally again. However, despite her best intentions she did find herself becoming attracted to Dr. Joe Werner, Ed Bauer's best friend. Fearful of getting hurt, Sara refused Joe's offer to go away with him on sabbatical. With Joe gone, a lonely Sara fell prey to the charms of Lee Gantry, patient with malaria who was suffering from hallucinations. A charming and erudite man, Lee, a widow, made Sara laugh and brought out her long-dormant spontaneity and it wasn't long before she impulsively married him. Sara's friends were shocked to hear that she'd married the enigmatic Lee. In England, a suspicious Joe investigated his rival. When Joe talked to neighbors of Lee and his wife Alice's, in England, he discovered that Lee had fired Mildred Foss when he lived there. Back in Springfield, a sequence of events straight out of the classic film "Gaslight" ensued. To her confusion, Sara started hearing strange noises or seeing appointments written in her appointment book that she knew nothing about. Mildred Foss fed her boyfriend. Tyler Meade, stories about how she was frightened of Sara, only to have Tyler skulk around the farm frightening Sara. Nervous, Sara confided in her friend, Mike Bauer, who had the farm investigated. Sara's paranoia grew to the point where she eventually bought a gun. Soon, Sara saw strange notes written in her appointment book and items in the book would be missing.

Later that year, Sara was distressed to learn about the suicide of her patient, Margie Wexler, and wondered if she was at fault for not noticing the symptoms. Sara would be brought up on charges, by the Cedars Hospital review board, for the events leading up to Margie's suicide, and would be temporarily suspended at Cedars. Now isolated with Lee and Mildred, one night in 1970, when Sara was alone during a thunderstorm, she heard a noise the attic. Frightened, she took a gun and went upstairs, where she spotted a shadowy figure and took a shot at it. The figure fell, and when Sara moved in closer, she saw the lifeless body of Mildred Foss! Fortunately for Sara, the D.A.'s office ruled the death an accident and dismissed all charges while she was also exonerated by the Cedars hospital review board. Unbeknownst to Sara, all these occurrences were caused by Lee himself who, ultimately, planned to kill Sara but make the death appear as a suicide. Finally in 1971, Joe returned to Springfield, and working with Mike and the Springfield P.D., he poked holes in many of Lee's stories. Although for a short time, Lee tried to convince the police that Joe was the one trying to kill Sara, the police weren't convinced. Later, Joe told a disbelieving Sara that Lee married her for her money. While searching for evidence against her husband, Sara remembered Meta Bauer telling her of the games she'd played with Alice at the farm when they were children. Meta recalled seeing a loose brick in the chimney, and Sara went up into the attic to check it out. Behind the brick, she found Alice Rawlings' diary! At that moment, Lee arrived and tried to murder Sara. Luckily, Joe showed up in the nick of time and saved the life of the woman he'd grown to love. Joe and Lee got into a violent fight that ended when Lee fell out of the attic window to his death. The harrowing ordeal over, Sara married Joe.

Though the pair deeply loved each other, their marriage came under strain due to their long work hours and Sara's guilt over not being able to give Joe a child. No longer communicating, Joe fell prey to the charms of Charlotte Waring and the two started having an affair. Though he tried to keep the affair secret, an anonymous person sent Sara a letter stating her husband was having an affair and when she confronted Joe, he finally confessed and insisted the affair was loveless. Then tragedy struck: Charlotte was rushed to the hospital after apparently suffering a heart attack. Though he tried to save her, Joe's efforts failed and Charlotte died. Joe was in deep trouble due to his bungling of Charlotte's case, and although Ed tried desperately to salvage his friend's career, Bruce Banning pushed hard for Joe's demotion. Hard-nosed osteopath Dr. Wilson Frost went so far as to insist that Joe be dismissed from the staff. Unbeknownst to Joe, Wilson had feelings for Sara. Under pressure from the medical review board, Joe resigned from Cedars and Ed became a reluctant chief of staff. Despite Ed's attempt to turn him around, Joe took to drink and holed up in a cabin with the unstable Kit Vested, who had caused Charlotte's death by poisoning her, as his only link to the outside world. Kit didn't waste any time in telling Joe that Wilson Frost was pursuing Sara, but she left out the part about Sara not reciprocating Wilson's feelings. Luckily for Joe, Sara discovered what was happening and went to the cabin to bring him home, only to have Kit poison her! After the poisoning, Kit attempted to kill Joe when, suddenly, Joe struggled with her for the gun. In the struggle, Kit was shot and killed herself. With Kit dead, the Werners resumed their marriage.

Their marriage stronger than ever, in 1975, the Werners decided to adopted a little boy named Timmy. Unfortunately soon after, a man named Spence Jeffers started sending notes to Sara and Joe stating that Timmy, or "T.J" as he was called, had been adopted illegally and was really his son. Sara and Joe were livid and it didn't help any that Joe had to go to India for professional reasons. Sara asked her good friend, Mike Bauer, to investigate Spence's claims and Mike eventually disproved the validity of Spence's claims about T.J. Unfortunately, before Mike could show how wrong Spence's assertions were, Joe would have a massive heart attack in India which killed him. Sara always suspected that the stress put on Joe because of Spence's claims is what caused Joe's fatal heart attack.

Following Joe's death, Sara accepted the friendship and comfort of Justin Marler (who earlier had completed a successful heart operation on Joe) and soon the pair began dating. However, that relationship ended quickly when Sara learned that Justin had slept with Brandy Shelloe. After her failed relationship with Justin, a vacationing Sara began a whirlwind courtship with attorney Dean Blackford and impulsively married him, despite warnings from her good friend Mike about his questionable ethics. Unfortunately, Sara should have heeded Mike's warnings about Dean. After the glow of the honeymoon, Sara started hearing hints from Dean that he may have been married before. Meanwhile, Mike suspected that Dean may still be married, making him a bigamist. Mike started investigating, without Dean's knowledge, but with Sara's consent. Meanwhile, Sara caught a brief glance at some affidavits that Dean brought home. Though Dean knew Sara didn't know too much about the legalities of the paper, he decided not to take any chances and had them locked in a safety deposit box. However, Dean left the safety deposit box in the apartment and not at a bank. This made Sara very curious, so she went to Mike and asked him what the affidavits might have been, Mike didn't say much, but did tell Sara that he suspected that Dean was becoming very dangerous and Mike suggested that Sara might want to move out of the penthouse apartment. Unfortunately, Sara, not learning from past mistakes, decided against Mike's advice.

Finally, one evening, Dean suggested that they go to a secluded hotel outside of Springfield for a second honeymoon. Before leaving, Sara did have the presence of mind to call Mike and let him know here plans. At the same time, Sara found the key to the safety deposit box. Dean, not realizing this, brought the safety deposit box with him. During the first couple of evenings at the hotel, Sara was very curious about what was in the safety deposit box. Then things went very awry! One night, Dean awoke and found Sara trying to open the safety deposit box. Dean got his gun, the same one he had used to shoot and kill Ramon de Vilar, and then gagged Sara and took her to a nearby cliff, ready to push her off! Luckily, Mike showed up and Dean let go of his grip on Sara and started to point the gun at Mike. Mike and Sara tried to reason with Dean, but to no avail. Things ended with Dean, reaching very near the edge of the cliff , falling to his death!

After the Dean Blackford debacle, in 1979, Sara would obtain a license to become a sex therapist,. Some of her early patients, in this capacity were: Holly Norris Thorpe, Rita Stapleton Bauer, Amanda Wexler, Lainie Marler and Katie Parker (lwho later became her assistant). That same year, Sara helped her old friend, Adam Thorpe, face up to the fact that his son, Roger, had indeed raped his wife.

In 1980, Sara and Adam ended up falling in love, when they bonded over concern for their children (Tim was drinking heavily and Roger was a wanted criminal and later presumed dead). In 1981, several of Sara's patients found themselves being blackmailed by an anonymous person. Though Sara knew nothing about this, she was very concerned when several of her files ended up disappearing. Initially blaming her assistant, Katie Parker, Sara nearly fired her until Katie reassured her that she had no idea how the files disappeared. Worried, Sara asked Mike to investigate the matter. Not long after, Sara and Adam married. Later that year, Mike discovered that Andy Norris was responsible for stealing Sara's own medical files in order to blackmail certain Springfield citizens. After helping to treat Carrie Todd Marler for Split Personality Disorder, in 1983, Sara took a job in Oregon and left Springfield with Adam. Unfortunately, by 1989, the marriage had ended.