Gladys Milton Palmer was a well known and respected British socialite and heiress who converted to the religion of Islam in an aeroplane because as she claims she wanted to be 'as far from earth and ask near to heaven as possible'. Gladys certainly had struggles in regard to finding religion going from being Protestant, to exploring Christian Science, then Catholicism and finally, accepting Islam.

Considering that Gladys' family was not of Muslim origin, she expected to be isolated from them, however she did not anticipate the alienation that she received from the Muslim community themselves who claimed that the conversion of Gladys was done as a publicity stunt and were unsure of her intentions behind the conversion.

Despite the debate surrounding the intentions of her conversions, Palmer persevered and was moving higher up in the socialite circles and even planned to present the Queen with a copy of the Quran.