Francine manifests as two distinct entities within the narrative. The original human Francine was born in Krohg Village during a famine. Sold into slavery as a child, she escaped to Prague. There, she survived through odd jobs and selling her hair, gaining a reputation as a thief among townsfolk after stealing an egg to feed a sick orphan; the orphan died while she was jailed for the crime. Despite this, the poor regarded her as an angel due to her unwavering kindness and generosity. In Prague, she met the alchemist brothers Bai Yin and Bai Jin. She fell in love with and married Yin, only to be kidnapped hours later by Jin. Jin took her to a French village where she fell ill. Villagers, fearing disease, imprisoned her in a hut for nine years. Reunited with Yin, she pleaded with him not to hate the villagers or Jin. When Yin returned with the life-extending Aqua Vitae (Soft Stone), she chose death by setting the hut on fire, believing her time with Jin made her unworthy of Yin. Before dying, she thanked Yin for his love and asked to meet him again. She left behind her cut hair, later used by Jin for the automaton modeled after her. Human Francine was the older sister of Lucille's mother, making her the great-aunt of Angelina, whose resemblance to her became significant.

Doll Francine is a highly complex automaton created by Bai Jin in the exact image of the deceased human Francine, using the hair Yin gave him. Jin sought to recreate his lost love, but the doll exhibited no emotions, particularly an inability to smile or laugh. Driven by this failure, Jin created Les Quatre Pioneers (Arlecchino, Pantalone, Dottore, Columbine) and unleashed ZONAPHA Syndrome upon a village, forcing infected individuals to try to make her laugh under threat of agonizing death. Despite witnessing this suffering, the doll remained expressionless. Enraged, Jin violently attacked and abandoned her, believing her destroyed. She survived and, inheriting Jin's obsession, spent centuries creating more automata herself in a vain effort to fulfill his wish. Eventually, weary of her role as Automata Queen, she created an exact replica to take her place and secretly traveled the world on a quest to find a "missing gear" she believed would complete her. During this time, she encountered Shōji Saiga and his wife Angelina, who took her in. She was present at the birth of their daughter, Éléonore. When Automata attacked, Francine sacrificed herself to save the infant Éléonore, who housed the Soft Stone, directly linking her legacy to the Saiga lineage and the ongoing conflict involving Automata and the Shirogane.

As ruler of the Midnight Circus, the replica or subsequent iterations of Doll Francine commanded the Four Pioneers and legions of Automata. Their core mission remained fulfilling Bai Jin's original wish: to make Francine smile or laugh. This drove the circus to spread ZONAPHA Syndrome globally, perpetuating a cycle of suffering in the desperate hope of achieving that elusive expression. The search for the Soft Stone, a key component of the life-granting Aqua Vitae sustaining Doll Francine, became another central objective tied to her existence and the Automata's purpose across centuries.