Stones of Progress follows the story of a young animal prosthetic mechanic Jessica and her journey to try and stop the largest city in the known world, the Capital, from self implosion. The story begins with the discovery of mysterious stones that are filled with power, enough to power an entire machine on their own. Afterwards, experimentation begins, which eventually culminates in Jess leaving the city to take refuge in a distant port town. 
While she is gone the Capital changes, dividing itself quite literally down the middle to separate two ideological movements. Both sides utilize the stones differently, but both believe the other is wrong. After twenty long years, the sides are on the bring of falling into war.
Jess, along with Watson, a friend of her father, and Roland, an outcast from the Capital, decides to return to the place she once lived so long ago to both reunite with her father, as well as attempt the impossible: bringing the two sides together.