The novel is split into three parts, based on Bond's meetings with the eponymous villain: "Happenstance", "Coincidence", and "Enemy Action".
In "Happenstance", Bond is on a layover in Miami when he meets Junius Du Pont, who had also taken part in the baccarat tournament in Casino Royale. Du Pont has been playing canasta with Auric Goldfinger, and asks Bond to investigate whether or not he has been cheating. Bond discovers Goldfinger's methods and seduces his accomplice, Jill Masterson.
In "Coincidence", Bond is assigned a mission on behalf of The Bank of England to determine if and how Goldfinger is illegally smuggling gold bullion. He plays golf with the magnate in Sandwich, and then follows him to Switzerland. He discovers Goldfinger's method of transporting gold, but is captured alongside Tilly Masterson when she attempts to avenge the murder of her sister.
In "Enemy Action", Bond narrowly avoids being cut in half with a circular saw by offering his and Tilly's services to Goldfinger. They're employed as secretaries and taken to New York for a meeting with several mob bosses: Mr Solo from the Sicilian Mafia; Jack Strap, the new leader of the Nevada-based Spangled Mob (from Diamonds Are Forever); and Pussy Galore, leader of an all-female gang of cat burglars known as The Cement Mixers. Goldfinger's plan is to rob the US bullion reserve at Fort Knox in Kentucky, and plans to blow open the vault using a nuclear bomb given to him by the Russians.
We'll look at a few minor changes. In the film, Bond is on official business from the start, getting a signal from London while in Miami to observe Goldfinger. Jill Masterson is killed in Bond's hotel room by being painted gold, dying from "skin suffocation". The novel uses this (inaccurate) cause of death as well, but it's only mentioned by Tilly. Meanwhile, Pussy Galore is now Goldfinger's personal pilot and has trained a flying circus of all-female pilots.
A lot of major changes were made in order to make them more plausible. For example, Bond avoids being cut in half by a laser by claiming his people know about Goldfinger's "Operation Grand Slam", prompting Goldfinger to spare him in order to ascertain how much he knows. This sounds a bit more plausible than offering to be a secretary.
In a similar regard, Goldfinger doesn't wish to rob Fort Knox in the film. Instead, his scheme is to detonate a "dirty bomb" in the vault given to him by the Chinese government (rather than the Russians). This atomic device would irradiate the US gold reserve, rendering it worthless and causing economic chaos in the West while simultaneously increasing the value of Goldfinger's own bullion. This makes more sense than trying to rob it, although that's discussed in the film. Plus it provides a climax which can take place inside the vault.
One of the other reasons for major changes is due to sanitisation. The filmmakers had to tone down a lot of very blatant racism, sexism, and homophobia in the books. For example, Goldfinger's Korean manservant Oddjob is depicted in the book as liking to eat cats, while Bond often refers to him as an "ape". Those aspects were removed in the film. Something tells me that Ian Fleming wasn't too fond of Korea. Yes there had been a war there six years earlier, but surely Fleming had left military intelligence at that point.
Meanwhile, the book establishes that both Tilly Masterson and Pussy Galore are lesbian. Tilly even believes that Pussy Galore will protect her during Operation Grand Slam, but ends up getting killed by Oddjob while trying to escape. Pussy Galore on the other hand, ends up with Bond afterwards. I've heard that there were strict laws regarding the depictions of homosexuality in pulp novels (mainly for the printing of smut, apparently), but I don't know if they were still in effect in 1959.
Anyway, Tilly is killed off earlier in the film, when Bond is captured in Switzerland. And Pussy Galore is depicted as just being aloof. Hollywood was still under the rules of The Hayes Code at this point, and homosexuality was one of the things it didn't allow. While these films were made in Britain, they were still being distributed by an American studio (and catering specifically to the American market), so they probably would have been subject to the code. I've heard the filmmakers actually had to fight to avoid changing Pussy Galore's name to Kitty Galore.
Overall, there was a lot of changes which had to be made for this one. I'll leave robbing the US federal reserve to Simon Gruber in Die Hard: With a Vengeance.
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