The Avalanche on AllMovie

Elsie Ferguson has a dual role, as mother and daughter, in this tale of gambling fever. Chichita (Ferguson) has a gambler father who is murdered, and later on she marries another gambler, who shoots himself. When she meets yet another gambler, Nick Delano (Warner Oland), she marries him too, and sends her daughter Helene (also Ferguson) to a convent, with John Harvey (Fred Esmelton) as her guardian. Years later, Chichita, now known as Madame Delano, runs a fashionable gambling hall with her husband. Helene, who has married Price Ruyler (Lumsden Hare), comes to the establishment, but is not aware that her mother is its proprietor. She has inherited her father's gambling bug and soon she has gone through all her money and pawned her jewels. She owes thousands of dollars to Delano, who threatens to expose her if she does not pay up. Madame Delano finds out that Helene is her daughter and tries to make a partial payment for her. This does not satisfy Delano, who attacks Helene. In the struggle he falls off a balcony and dies. The police show up, but Madame Delano puts on Helene's wrap and hat and is taken away in her place. She is sent to prison for murder and kills herself so that she won't bring shame down on her daughter.