 Many of the events in the film are true, including having to earn  her own passage to China, entertaining inn guests with Bible  stories, working as a foot inspector, ending the prison riot,  earning such respect from the mandarin that he became a Christian,  and traveling to Sian with 100 orphans. However, the romance with  Colonel Lin was a complete fabrication, and embarrassed the real  Gladys Aylward, a chaste and humble woman who died in 1970.