After reading John's answer, I discovered the following seemed to work for us (did not require specifying width):
<style>
.row {
float:left;
border: 1px solid yellow;
overflow: visible;
white-space: nowrap;
}
.cell {
display: inline-block;
border: 1px solid red;
height: 100px;
}
</style>
<div class="row">
<div class="cell">hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello </div>
<div class="cell">hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello </div>
<div class="cell">hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello </div>
</div>