diff --git a/zyklonb.c b/zyklonb.c
index 7edd343..d18b255 100644
--- a/zyklonb.c
+++ b/zyklonb.c
@@ -2159,12 +2159,17 @@ on_signal_pipe_readable (const struct pollfd *fd, struct bot_context *ctx)
 
 		plugin->pid = -1;
 
+		// In theory we could close `read_fd', set `read_event->closed' to true
+		// and expect epoll to no longer return events for the descriptor, as
+		// all the pipe ends should be closed by then (the child is dead, so its
+		// pipe FDs have been closed [assuming it hasn't forked without closing
+		// the descriptors, which would be evil], and we would have closed all
+		// of our FDs for this pipe as well).  In practice that doesn't work.
+		poller_fd_reset (&plugin->read_event);
+
 		xclose (plugin->read_fd);
 		plugin->read_fd = -1;
 
-		plugin->read_event.closed = true;
-		poller_fd_reset (&plugin->read_event);
-
 		LIST_UNLINK (ctx->plugins, plugin);
 		plugin_data_free (plugin);
 		free (plugin);