British agent James Bond, arriving in a wet suit covering a white tuxedo, blows up a heroin processing plant in South America. Returning to his accommodation, he is attacked, but manages to electrocute his assailant by throwing him into a bathtub along with an electric heater.
In Miami, Bond meets his associate from the CIA, Felix Leiter, who instructs him to investigate Auric Goldfinger, a European millionaire who is suspiciously good at winning his card games. Bond discovers both Goldfinger's method of cheating and his accomplice, Jill Masterson. Bond seduces her and forces Goldfinger to lose $15,000 or face the Miami police, but is knocked unconscious by a mysterious stranger. Waking up, he finds Jill dead, covered in suffocating gold body paint.
Returning to London, Bond is informed that MI6 have suspicions that Goldfinger, a bullion dealer and international jeweller, has been smuggling his gold between countries in order to make a huge profit. Bond is given a bar of rare Nazi gold to entice Goldfinger into revealing his activities during a game of golf. Goldfinger appears charming but becomes menacing when his attempts to win the game through foul play are thwarted by Bond. He makes veiled threats and introduces Bond to his silent henchman, Oddjob, who combines immense strength with a lethal, steel-rimmed bowler hat.
Bond follows Goldfinger to Switzerland and narrowly escapes death at the hands of Tilly Masterson, Jill's sister, who wants to avenge her death. She follows him to Goldfinger's metallurgical installation, where Bond discovers that he smuggles his gold in the form of the body work of his Rolls Royce Phantom, which is then melted down into an untraceable form. He also learns that the millionaire is engaged in an operation known as Grand Slam. The two trespassers are discovered and, after a lengthy car chase, Bond is captured and Tilly killed. Bond is strapped to a table and nearly emasculated by an industrial laser beam, but escapes by convincing Goldfinger that he knows all about Operation Grand Slam.
Waking up once again, Bond finds himself in an aeroplane headed for Baltimore, piloted by Pussy Galore, one of Goldfinger's associates. He meets Goldfinger again at the millionaire's stud farm, where he is imprisoned.
Escaping from his cell, Bond overhears Goldfinger hosting a meeting of American mobsters, to each of whom he owes a million dollars. He offers them the chance to be part of the crime of the century, Operation Grand Slam, a raid on Fort Knox - the site of the USA's gold reserves - which will irradiate America's gold supplies, thus artificially inflating the value of Goldfinger's own gold. The troops around Fort Knox will be immobilised with nerve gas, the fences will be demolished by his specially trained attack troops, and an atomic bomb will be exploded inside the repository. One of the mobsters decides to leave but is killed and disposed of in a car crusher. However, Bond has planted a note on him to alert the authorities to Goldfinger's plan.
Bond, following some foreplay in a stable with an initially frosty but gradually acquiescing Pussy Galore, is taken to Fort Knox and handcuffed to the bomb. Goldfinger and his troops begin the raid and all appears to be going according to plan, but the gas canisters have been switched by Pussy and the soldiers around Fort Knox have faked unconsciousness and thus counterattack. Goldfinger escapes, dressed as an army officer, but Bond is locked in the repository. He fights and kills Oddjob and defuses the bomb with only 007 seconds to go.
Bond is invited to the White House but his flight is intercepted by Goldfinger who makes another attempt on his life. But his shot is averted and he is sucked through a window which has been smashed by the bullet. Bond and Pussy narrowly escape from the plane and they embrace under a parachute.
