Franklin is away on business when Stevie gets sick. When he finds Stevie in the hospital, he wants to modify the environment to bring in things from his home as he believes the hospital environment is not conducive to healing. He is antagonistic to Stevie's girlfriend Leah because she is not Roma. He is very defensive about his cultural identity, believing that most people still discriminate against the Roma. As Stevie gets worse, the doctors want to try other treatments. However, Franklin refuses, feeling that the doctors only want to experiment on his son.