One summer day, as Aksel is sitting in the park, he witnesses his friend Bent put his hand up between the legs of Maiken, a female friend of both of them. Sure, they have a relationship of sorts and, sure, there’s no noticeable reaction from Maiken, but does that mean that the incident should just be ignored? What is it a sign of? Aksel’s first thought is not to say anything, that he’ll just let it pass. But then he changes his mind and says something. And at that moment everything rises to the surface; how always and everywhere there is an oppressive impulse in everything that men does.

The incident in the park brings the two friends into the public spotlight, to a podcast, to a discussion program on TV and, eventually, to court.

In Sangria in the Park, Nils-Øivind Haagensen writes about the dynamics withing a circle of male friends, about the often accepting silence between men when it comes to the way they look at, talk about and treat women, and about what happens when somebody breaks the silence.